This Summer
by Starlightlovesya123
Summary: When Amy recieves a letter, telling her she won the grand prize of a trip for five to Sapphire Beach, she and her friends couldn't be more excited. But a lot can happen in three months, and who knows what kind of trouble they'll get into?
1. Five Teenage Girls

The lavender feline groaned. So much for a new look.

Amy had set her up for another blind date, and she figured she may as well make an effort to try a different look, something that Amy often bugged her about. But, so far, no such luck.

She gazed into the oak full-length mirror, standing in the corner of her chamber room. She had never really been one to worry about her looks, which she guessed was strange, as she was a princess. But…it just wasn't like her. She liked herself the way she was.

But apparently Amy did not.

The feline took out her pony-tailed hair, and began sculpting it in different ways.

Her hair down. It looked limp and…meh.

Her hair up. Looked like the way she always wore it.

Her hair sideways. Looked stupid.

Her hair in pigtails. She started cracking up.

The phone rang. The feline's eyes lingered on her reflection in the mirror, as she reached for the phone.

"Hello?" She answered.

"_Blaze?_"

"Hey, Amy." She held the phone with her shoulder, pressing her head against it, so it didn't slip off.

Amy began singing. "'_I've got two tickets to paradise, I've got-wait…make that…five tickets to paradise! I've got-"_

"Eh, good for you." Blaze paid no attention. She looked into the mirror again, un-tangling her hair with her fingers. "Look, have you ever seen my hair down? It looks okay, I guess, but I'm not sure if I-"

"_Blaze."_ Amy interrupted. "_Did you not just hear what I said? I have five tickets…to paradise."_

Blaze stopped. "Wait…that contest you entered three months ago?"

"_Yep. It's mine."_

"No way."

"_Yes way."_

"I hate water."

"_I don't care. You're coming to Sapphire Beach, whether you like it or not." _Amy replied, her tone very final.

Then she hung up.

Blaze sighed. It was going to be a long summer.

*****

_Okay. Now stand still…perfect._

A yellow hedgehog sat on a lawn chair, on her back porch. In her lap was her sketch book, along with an assorted bunch of pastels and charcoals. Her large, green, intent eyes were watching a small oriole bird.

The oriole fluffed out its feathers, then cocked its head to the side, giving the hedgehog a questioning look.

The hedgehog remained focused, looking up and down from the oriole to her sketchbook, slowly tracing the lines of the body shape, adding shadows, creating the wings.

It was rather funny that she enjoyed drawing as much as she did. She could break the sound barrier…with her feet. One would think she would constantly be doing that, constantly be having an adventure. And she did love having adventures. But she liked to kick back now and again, and enjoy the beauty around her.

Just as she was beginning to add color, her cell phone rang.

She hissed in irritation as the oriole immediately flew away. The hedgehog dug her phone out of her pocket. It was playing "Barbie Girl". She rolled her eyes. Amy had probably set this ringtone for herself.

She slid it open, then held it to her ear. "What's up?"

"_Sapphire Beach is what's up!_" Amy did nothing to contain her glee. She sounded like she was about to explode with happiness.

The yellow hedgehog stood up, eyes wide, forgetting the sketchbook and pastels. "You're not serious."

"_I totally am. Star, this is gonna be the best summer of our lives._"

"You've got that right. But how are you going to get Blaze to come?"

Amy's voice took on a much more forceful tone. She was scary when she was like this. "_Oh, she'll come. I'll make sure of it."_

****

"How does this one look?"

"Fine."

"Shade, you didn't even look."

The peach-colored echidna glanced up from her book, to see the white bat. "It looks fine, Rouge. It always does." She said and looked back down at her book.

Rouge twisted around, trying to get a better look at herself in the mirror. "I'm not really sure if purple's my color, though. Maybe I should get black. That always seems to look nice." She grabbed the black dress that was hanging on a hook nearby. "Okay, so now I need a bikini."

Shade let out an exasperated sigh. "We can't possibly have more shopping to do."

The bat winked at her. "There's always more shopping to do, hun."

Then her cell phone rang. Shade slumped into a chair, rolling her eyes, as Rouge flipped open her phone.

"Yes?"

"_We're going to Sapphire Beach." _Amy's voice could be heard on the opposite line.

Rouge's eyes widened. "You mean, with the blue oceans, and white sand beaches, and guys with no shirts??!!"

"_Yep. So pack your bags, 'cause we leave next week! Oh, tell Shade too, if she's with you."_

"Will do, hun. See ya." Rouge hung up. Then she turned and gave Shade a mischievous grin.

Shade sighed. "I know that look." She told the bat.

"We're going to have the best summer ever."

****

Amy was digging through her walk-in closet, throwing everything and anything cute into her suitcase. The letter stating she had won the fashion contest-with the grand prize of a trip for five to Sapphire Beach-was still lying on her bed.

"Need help?"

Amy looked up to find Star standing in the doorway. It had only been minutes since she had called her, and Star lived several miles away. Amy laughed and gave her an 'um, duh' sort of look.

The two began sifting through piles of clothing. "So, when do we leave?" Star asked.

"Tuesday, next week." Amy replied.

Star let out a whistle. "That's soon."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Yeah, but, I mean…"

"You have nothing to wear." Amy chuckled.

Star sighed. "How do you do that? Read my mind, I mean."

"You're one of the most readable people I've ever met, Star. When you're angry, your eyebrows furrow and your ears go back. When you're sad, your eyes and tail droop. When you're happy, your eyes sparkle, and your ears perk up. When you're embarrassed, you blush. And when you lie, you're left eye twitches." Amy listed.

Star raised an eyebrow. "It does?"

"It's one of the things that make you a terrible liar." Amy said simply.

Star sighed. "Yes, I suppose so."

"Anyway, Star, it doesn't matter what you wear. We're going to be getting a whole new wardrobe as soon as we get there."

"Oh, really?"

"I'm going to make sure of it." Once again, her tone was quite final.

"Can I at least keep my shoes?" Star pointed down to her favorite purple running shoes.

Amy gave them a look of utter disgust. "They look like they were made fifty years ago, Star."

"But they're comfortable." The yellow hedgehog pouted.

"I don't care." Amy snatched the letter off her bed again. "Okay, so it's for three days and three nights at the Grand Hibiscus hotel."

Star looked up. "Only three days and three nights?"

Amy giggled. "Oh, don't you worry. My aunt owns a place down there, and she told me as soon as our days are up at the Hibiscus, we can come straight to her place. We're going to be there for three months."

"Three months?" Star's eyes widened.

Amy grinned. "Three months."

**A/N: Yes, it's a short chapter, but it's mostly a prologue. I'll try to get another chapter out soon. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Booklets and Blushes

Amy reclined in her chair in the airplane, flipping through the pages of a magazine.

"I've never been so bored in my life." Star said. She was looking at the airplane safety instructions.

"Probably because you're reading that." Amy pointed at the instructions.

Star gazed out the window. "Can't this thing go any faster?"

"Just because you're so used to going fast." Blaze rolled her eyes from her seat behind them.

Star shrugged. "How would you feel if you couldn't use your flames?"

"Blessed." Everyone but Blaze answered, then burst into laughter.

Blaze crossed her arms. "Well, at least I don't read airplane instruction booklets."

"Well, at least I don't purr in my sleep." Star snickered.

"Well, at least I-"

"Enough!" Amy cried. "This is no way to start out our vacation."

"She started it." Star and Blaze said simultaneously. Then they grinned at each other.

The speakers above them made a bell-like sound, and then the voice of the captain came through. "_We should be landing in about thirty minutes."_ He said.

Rouge looked up. "Almost there." She nudged Shade, who had fallen asleep in the seat beside her.

"Huh?" Shade's eye-lids fluttered open.

"We're landing soon, hun." Rouge reached forward and tapped Star on the shoulder. "Open up the window. I can assure you, it's much more interesting than the booklet."

Star nodded, and slid open the window. She blinked at the sudden, intense light, then gazed out.

They were just starting to come out from the clouds. Star could see the ocean, brilliantly sparkling in the sunshine hitting it. The beach was a brilliant white, with dots of color splattered all over it, people walking, umbrellas, towels laid out. Palm trees and houses lined the area behind the beach, creating quite a lovely picture.

"Look! Look! There, that's the Grand Hibiscus!" Amy exclaimed, and pointed at a large resort. It seemed to be just a couple of miles off the beach, and was surrounded by brilliant landscaping. Flowers, palm trees, and lush green grass covered the acres the surrounded the resort.

"Wow." Shade breathed, looking over the top of Rouge's shoulder.

Star gave Blaze a teasing nudge. "How ya likin' that water?"

Blaze smiled. "Oh, it's gorgeous. Doesn't mean I'm going in it."

"Oh, yes it does." Star grinned at Blaze, who rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, live a little, Blazey." She put her arms around Blaze and hugged her.

Blaze pretended to ignore the gesture, but gave in, and hugged back.

"Oh, look! We're landing!" Amy cried. Several passengers turned to look at us strangely as we all practically pressed our faces against the windows.

The plane dipped even further, and Shade clutched at the sides of her seat, her eyes widening.

Amy glanced back at Shade. "Not one for planes, huh?"

Shade gave an uneasy grin and shook her head.

She let out a soft yelp as the plane dipped again, and her heart fell to her stomach. Ugh…she hated that free-falling feeling.

Blaze snorted. Shade kicked the back of her seat.

"I was kidding, Shade. Just kidding." Blaze grinned back at her.

Shade was silent, trying to keep her stomach under control.

"Oh, man, guys. This is going to be so awesome. I'm going to find boyfriends for all of you. And one for me, of course." Amy sighed dreamily.

Star and Blaze, who had just happened to be taking a sip of a drink at the same time, choked. "Wait, what?" They said simultaneously.

"She's gonna hook you girls up." Rouge smiled. "I'm liking the sound of this trip already."

"Okay, really fast. I need to get the looks that turn you guys on, so that I can start scanning the crowd." Amy scrambled for a pen and paper.

Blaze gave her a look. "Excuse me? Did you just ask me what turns me on?"

Amy looked back at her. "Um, duh."

Blaze sighed. Amy was never going to change, and she'd best get used to it.

"Okay, Star?" Amy looked at Star expectantly, pen ready.

"Uh…well, I don't know, Amy! I judge if a guy 'turns me on'," she cringed as she said this, "when I first see him."

Amy blinked. "And…?"

Obviously Amy wasn't going to take 'I don't know' for an answer.

Star tried to conjure up something, when suddenly the plane landed, and the little bell-like sound rang again, announcing people could retrieve their carry-on luggage.

_Phew. Talk about saved by the bell._ Star thought to herself.

Star, Blaze, and Shade each grabbed their one carry-on bag, while Rouge and Amy barely managed to carry all of theirs.

"Make-up." Rouge explained, with a wink.

When they turned to give Amy a questioning look, they saw every single one of her bags were pink.

"What?" Amy asked them, a confused look on her face.

"Oh nothing, nothing, dear." Rouge smiled.

***

Meanwhile, a black hedgehog with green highlights, and a regimental hedgehog also walked down the aisles of the plane, watching the girls.

"First-timers." The black hedgehog rolled his eyes.

The regimental female smiled, and gave him a small peck on the cheek.

"We should follow them, Nodoka." He told the girl, grinning mischievously.

She gave him a knowing look. "Sam…"

"Aw, come on, it would be fun."

"But what if they caught us?" The one named Nodoka looked uneasily back at the girls.

"What would they do? Arrest us? Seriously, just for some laughs." Sam replied.

"Oh, alright…" Nodoka rolled her eyes, but a smile appeared on her lips.

****

A certain blue hedgehog checked his watch again. 2:12. The plane was late.

He let out a long sigh. He really hated this job. He would much rather be out running, or surfing with his friends.

A smug smile appeared on his face as he thought of beating Jet yet again in a surfing competition.

But the smile disappeared when he remembered he had had to cancel the match, because he had to pick up a bunch of girls from the airport. He rolled his eyes. Really, couldn't they just catch a cab? But nooo, they had to have a personal driver, because they had won some big prize.

He would never have taken this job in the first place, if only his parents hadn't forced him into it. His mom had called him by his middle name about fifty times as a way to get him to listen, and eventually he had gotten so fed up he accepted the job.

The blue hedgehog was interrupted from his thoughts would he heard the plane pull up. He ran over to it, which took him about two seconds, and pulled out the piece of cardboard stating 'Shine Magazine Fashion-Contest Winners'. He felt like a complete and utter idiot.

A loud, high-pitched squeal nearly broke his eardrums. He looked up. Walking down the stairs leading down from the plane was a pink hedgehog, who had flung her arms about and started exclaiming to the world that her name was Amy Rose and she had officially arrived.

Behind her was a shy looking peach-colored echidna and a white bat, who was carrying a multitude of expensive-looking bags. His eyes trailed further behind them, and he found a yellow hedgehog. He blinked. A wave of déjà-vu fell over him, and he rubbed his eyes. Certainly he had never seen that hedgehog before…

He shook it off, and looked behind her. He blinked again, but not because he felt déjà-vu.

It was because the lilac feline he saw standing there was utterly lovely. Beautiful, even.

Which was funny, 'cause he had never much been into girls. But this one…A grin appeared on his lips.

He took in her slim features, trailing every inch of her body with his eyes. He let out a long whistle. Maybe this job wasn't so bad after all…

The group of friends walked down the stairs and began looking around for a chauffeur.

"Oh, there!" The pink hedgehog squealed again, and pointed at the blue hedgehog. He cringed.

She ran over to him, her eyes sparkling with happiness and…_wait. _He thought. _Oh, no._

"Hi, there." She put on a cute, innocent…flirty smile, clasping her hands in front of her.

_Crap_. The blue hedgehog thought. _She likes me._

"Amy, wait up!"

He lifted his eyes to see who the voice had come from. He couldn't ignore the way his heart started beating much faster when he realized it was the feline. _Pull yourself together, Sonic._ He told himself.

_But, god, she's gorgeous…_

The feline and the others marched straight up to him. "Well? Where's the limo?" The feline asked him.

Sonic laughed. "Limo?"

"Um, yes?" She gave him an expectant look.

"Uh, look, I'm sorry, but I don't drive a limo. I drive a Ferrari." He shrugged.

"Oh, that's fine too!" The yellow hedgehog blurted out. She instantly covered her mouth, blushing.

He looked back at her. Huh. She liked Ferraris, eh? "Yeah, mine's the newest model."

An excited grin appeared on her face.

"Eh, well, whatever, let's get going. I'm exhausted." The feline said.

"Blaze! Don't be rude! This young man is doing us quite a favor!" The one named Amy scolded the feline, apparently named Blaze, then turned back to Sonic and beamed at him.

He paid no attention, however. He was thinking of other things.

_Blaze…aahh…_A dreamy look appeared on his face.

"Um, hello?" The feline waved a perfectly manicured hand in front of his face.

He shook his head. "Right. Sorry." He grinned sheepishly, then started to lead the way to the car.

"My name's Sonic." He stuck out his hand to Blaze.

"Blaze." She replied, shaking it, rather nonchalantly.

He was not in the least discouraged. He walked a little closer to her. "So, how do you like Sapphire Beach so far?"

"…I've been here five minutes." She raised an eyebrow at him.

He gave himself a mental slap. "Right. Again. Heh." He looked away, angry at himself for making a terrible first impression.

"It's pretty, though." He was surprised when he realized she was still talking to him. "Very pretty. I guess I shouldn't be so annoying to my friends about the whole thing, it's just…well, I don't know. The whole parties and sun-tanned boys isn't really my thing." She said to him.

"I know what you mean." He said understandingly.

She turned to look at him, and he realized there was a bit of a grin on her face. "No, you don't." She said.

He laughed. "Alright, you caught me. I don't."

"It's okay. Not many understand me…except maybe Star, but not even her sometimes…" She trailed off.

He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. I promise you, you'll have a great time here."

She looked slightly uneasy with him being this close, but she smiled. "Thanks, I guess." She said.

He winked. "My pleasure."

"Well, well, well…the first new romance of the summer." The white bat chuckled, as she walked behind Sonic and Blaze.

"Rouge!" A stunned blush appeared on Blaze's face, and she stopped walking.

_Oh my God…_ Sonic thought, watching her cheeks practically turn to roses.

"What?" Blaze saw him staring at her. "I…I…" She tried to come up with something to explain what Rouge said. She sent Rouge a menacing glare. The bat only grinned and winked at her.

"No…no, it's nothing…it's just your…" He couldn't take his eyes away from her red cheeks.

"My what?" Blaze put her hands on her hips, trying to look defiant, but Sonic could tell she was still embarrassed.

He shook his head. "Never mind. The car's right here." He walked up to a blue Ferrari sitting in the parking lot.

"Oh, wow." The yellow hedgehog said when she saw it. "We're riding in this?" She asked Sonic.

"Yep. Climb on in." He opened the door for her.

Everyone got into the car- Shade, Star, Rouge, and a jealous looking Amy in the back, and Blaze next to Sonic in the front. She looked away from him, out the window. He sighed.

"Alright. To the Grand Hibiscus." He said.

****

"Crap." Sam said, as he and Nodoka hid behind a truck in the parking lot. "They're driving away."

"Oh, well, that sucks. Time to go, Sam." Nodoka stood up, and tried to pull him up, but he didn't budge.

He pulled something out of his pocket.

"Sam…no." Nodoka warned him.

"Sam, yes." He grinned to himself, and his Extreme Gear appeared. He turned to Nodoka. "We're following them."

Her shoulders slumped, exasperated. "But, why?"

"'Cause I've never seen a funnier, more awkward couple in my life." He laughed.

Nodoka sighed. "Fine." She grabbed her own Extreme Gear.

"Let's go."

**A/N: A kinda short chapter, but I'm still trying to get ideas. Anyway, hope you enjoyed!**

**Star(light) belongs to me.**

**Nodoka and Sam belong to ****ADarknessInHeaven.**

**More OCs to come. I haven't forgotten you guys ;)**


	3. Red, White, and Blue

A red hedgehog tapped her gloved fingers impatiently against the front desk. She checked her watch. For the heck of it, she checked it again.

She really hated boredom.

She smoothed out the ruffles on her uniform, highly disgusted by the frilly lace. It was required by the hotel she worked at that she wore this costume, which made her look like something out of "Cinderella."

She looked through the glass sliding doors of the hotel to see a red Ferrari pull up. Five girls climbed out of the car, and one guy. The guy gave them a wave, although the red hedgehog could have sworn his eyes only remained on one of them, and then he got back in and drove off.

"Skye." Someone tapped her shoulder.

The red hedgehog turned around. Standing there was a light blue hedgehog, with black highlights lining his tall quills.

"Ryan!" She gasped. She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down beneath the desk. They kneeled together and she whispered, "What are you doing here? You know you're not supposed to be here!"

Ryan grinned at her. "But I wanted to see you."

Skye pushed away the blush she felt coming on. "I don't care, you have to get out of here!" She told him urgently.

The sound of shuffling feet echoed off the walls of the entrance room, as the five girls came in.

"Wait here." Skye told Ryan, and sprang up. The girls now standing in front of the desk blinked at her, startled as she suddenly appeared from under the desk.

"Er, uh, sorry about that. I…dropped my pen." Skye told them.

One of the girls, a purple cat, raised her eyebrow.

"Anyway, welcome to the Grand Huzzicus," Skye shook her head. "Hibiscus. Sorry. The Grand Hibiscus. How may I help you?"

A pink hedgehog laid an assortment of papers across the desk. "We're here because I won the Shine Magazine Fashion Contest." She beamed at Skye.

Something about this girl was already getting on Skye's nerves. "I see, so…what rooms are you staying in?" Skye turned to the fancy computer sitting on the desk beside her.

"Rooms 3500 and 3501. They are non-smoking and connected, correct?" The pink hedgehog, ever so animated, asked.

"Yes, they are." Skye replied.

"And there is free access to the pool, bar, and spa, correct?"

"…Yes."

"And a beautiful ocean view, correct?"

Skye's eyes narrowed. "Yes." She said, trying to keep the irritation out of her voice.

"Well, thank you!" The hedgehog beamed, then scooped up the keys that Skye handed to her. She then instantly marched off towards the elevators, leaving her bags with Skye.

As the girls followed her, one of them, a yellow hedgehog, turned to Skye, smiled, and mouthed 'Sorry about her.'

Skye smirked, then nodded, and watched as the five girls disappeared into the elevator.

She reached over and picked up the phone, pressing the button with 'House-keeping and Luggage' written on it.

"_Hello?_" A male voice picked up on the other line.

"_Silver, we've got some luggage we need you to take to rooms 3500 and 3501." _Skye replied.

A heavy sigh from the male followed. _"Alright…"_

Skye jammed the phone back into the handset, then ducked back down under the desk.

Ryan grinned. "Why, hello the-"

She pressed a finger against his lips. "Shh. Come with me." She handed him a pair of glasses. "Put these on so no one recognizes you."

Ryan laughed. "Aviators? You serious?"

"Put 'em on!"

"Okay, okay, jeez…" Ryan slipped on the glasses, then did a double-take at Skye. "How do I look?"

"Like an idiot." She replied, with a slight teasing smile.

He opened his mouth to retort, but stopped. He blushed when he realized she had grabbed his hand.

"Come on, let's go." She told him.

****

"Woah. Check this place out." Sam whistled, as he and Nodoka rode up to the Grand Hibiscus on their Extreme Gear.

"Quite the place, huh?" Nodoka commented, stretching her head back to take in the sky-scraper-like size of the building.

"Yeah…"

"We're staying here."

"Wait…what?" Sam turned to Nodoka, startled.

"We. Are. Going. To. Stay. Here. End of story." She crossed her arms.

"But…it must cost, like, billions!" Sam exclaimed.

"Nothing you and I can't earn back in a week's worth of crime fighting." She replied.

"True…"

"Come on, let's check it out!" Nodoka called back her Extreme Gear, and grabbed Sam's hand, pulling him towards the hotel.

"Since when did you become the eager one?" He asked.

"Since now." Nodoka grinned. "I know how to have fun, Sam. And I know fun when I see it. Staying here, and not to mention following those girls, is fun."

"Now you listen to me." Sam rolled his eyes, but grinned back at her.

The two then dismounted their Extreme Gear, and walked into the hotel.

*****

"Oh. My. God."

Starlight said, as she stepped into the giant hotel room.

Am skipped on in. "What? The room?" She asked Star.

"Um, duh…I mean…Ames, it's amazing." Star looked around, taking it all in. On the east side, there were two crisp, clean queen beds with intricate palm tree patterns on them. The beds were both facing a giant, plasma screen TV on the west side, with a whole stock of video games. The plasma was mounted above a large mahogany dresser, with five different columns of drawers, plus a mini bar. Beside the dresser, was a door that led to the room Shade and Rouge would be sharing.

On the south side was the door Star had just walked through, plus another door that led to a bathroom, and a fireplace.

On the north side…well, it was amazing.

It was covered with windows, all showing a perfect view of the ocean, sunlight sparkling off of each individual wave, the crystal clear water lapping up against the white beach. It felt like you could reach out and touch it.

Blaze walked in, and immediately collapsed onto one of the beds, not even bothering to take a look around.

Star narrowed her eyes. "You don't think it's amazing, Blaze?"

Blaze opened an eye. "Huh? Oh. No, not really. Remember, I'm used to grand rooms like this. Actually, better than this. I'm a princess." Then she curled up into a ball and fell asleep.

Star rolled her eyes. "Cats." She muttered.

"Hedgehogs." Blaze replied in her sleep.

"Well, look at that." Rouge said slyly, from her position at the window.

Star walked over to her. "What?"

"I've already spotted…three, no wait, four hot guys. That one over there…the black one, see, then…uh, the red one, oh, and that blue one…" Rouge began, but Star walked away, just chuckling at her ridiculous friends.

Shade had settled down on her bed in the room she and Rouge were sharing. Though the two's personalities were nearly a polar opposite, they got along pretty well. Shade was beginning to unpack her things. A few shirts, some jeans, her battle armor…

"NO!" Came the gasp from Amy.

Shade looked up. "What?" She asked Amy, who was standing about five feet away from her, an incredulous look on her face.

Amy snatched the battle armor away from Shade. "I told you not to bring this!!!" She screeched.

Shade sighed. "Amy, so it's not at the height of fashion, but that doesn't mean I don't need-"

"Oh, yes, it does! I will not allow any friend of mine to be seen in this!" Amy said, already marching off to the trash can.

Shade blinked, then narrowed her eyes. "Amy, no trash compacter can break that thing. It's nearly indestructible."

"Fine, then it goes down the toilet." Amy replied, firmly.

Shade's eyes widened. Then she jumped to her feet and scrambled after Amy.

"Luggage!" Came the call from behind one of the front doors. Specifically, the one in the room Amy, Blaze, and Star were sharing.

"I got it!" Amy squealed, Shade having just barely managed to yank her armor away from Amy.

Amy skipped into her own room, swinging open the door.

Standing there was a white hedgehog. Three quills positioned on his forehead shot straight up, and his eyes were a sharp amber. He had strange markings on his palms, as well as cuffs around his wrists. He was glancing at a slip of paper in his hand.

"Hello, this is Room 3500, correct? I-" His eyes moved from the paper to meet hers, and he froze.

"Yes, it is. Thank you!" Amy grabbed the luggage with an utterly thrilled look on her face, pulled it inside, then slammed the door in the poor hedgehog's face.

"Amy…don't you think that was a bit rude?" Star raised an eyebrow at her.

"Huh?" Amy was completely focused with sorting through Star's luggage, making content faces at some pieces of clothing, and looks of utter disgust at others.

Star sighed. "Never mind, Amy. Never mind."

*****

Meanwhile, the white hedgehog was still standing outside of the door, his mouth agape, his eyes wide.

Then his shoulders slumped, his eyes drooped, and his lips twisted into a dreamy smile. "…Wow." He thought, not realizing he had said it aloud. "…I think I just saw an angel…"

"What's gotten into you?"

The white hedgehog jumped, and whirled around to see Skye giving him a quizzical look.

He immediately made a sheepish face, running a hand through his quills. "Oh, nothing…" He said uneasily.

Skye gave him a strange look, but sighed. "Silver, I need you to take Ryan to Room 2341, 'kay?"

"Ryan? But…I thought he got fired." Silver replied, looking confused.

Skye slapped a hand to her forehead, then slowly let it wipe down her face. She looked at Silver through narrowed eyes. "He did, Silver. That's why I'm asking you to take him to Room 2341."

"…Oh…"

Skye sighed. "Thanks, bud." She said, then ran down towards the elevators.

Silver merely turned back to the door of Room 3500 and continued to stare.

****

Ryan tapped his foot impatiently against the cold, tiled floor of the main lobby. He felt rather exposed, as he knew he wasn't supposed to be here. Skye's disguise was working decently, although a few people gave him strange looks.

He found his thoughts kept leading back to Skye, despite the fact that he was trying to stay alert for Silver, who was supposed to be picking him up.

Skye…Heh. He knew he liked her. Liked her a lot. She was a mystery, that girl. And Ryan liked a good mystery.

He sighed. He used to work here, with her. Until he had gotten charged with murder, which was ridiculous, because he would never do such a thing. He was sure he had been mistaken for someone else, he just didn't know who.

His eyes rose as the sliding glass doors of the hotel opened again. This time, two hedgehogs came in, one black and green, the other a regimental color. They both looked around in awe at the place, with its high, stretching ceilings, expensive furniture, exquisite gift shops and restaurants, and of course the famous fountain in the middle, of a young hedgehog on a dolphin's back, surrounded by other dolphins.

Just then, the elevator doors opened and Skye came rushing out, out of breath. Ryan grinned at her, then remembered they weren't supposed to know each other, and looked away.

When he glanced back at her, she was at the desk, talking to the hedgehogs that had just walked in. Eventually, she handed them a key, and they entered an elevator together. Ryan snickered as he saw their lips meet just as the elevator door closed, hiding them from view.

Skye then looked around. When she saw the cost was clear, she ran over to Ryan.

"Silver didn't pick you up yet?" She asked.

He shook his head.

She sighed. "I swear, one of these days…that white hedgehog…"

"Can you just take me, Skye?" Ryan said, trying to keep the hopeful tone out of his voice.

She stopped and looked down at him. "Yeah, I guess, even though my shift's not over. Whatever, I hate this job anyway." She grinned. "Come on, we need to get you ready for the party tonight."

****

Sam and Nodoka held each other tightly, sharing a warm embrace. When they finally broke apart, Sam blinked.

"What was that for?" He asked, a bit stunned.

"For…oh, I dunno." She grinned. "Being the best boyfriend ever, maybe?"

Sam grinned back, then looked down at the card in his hand. "Huh…Room 3502." He said.

"Wait…what's that?" Nodoka pointed to a small slip of paper that was in Sam's hand, along with the card.

"I dunno…let's see." Sam opened up the paper, and saw that the words 'Party, 6:00, West Side of Beach' was scribbled onto it. "Heh. That red hedgehog must have accidentally given this to me." He said.

"Guess this means we're going to a party! Shopping time!" Nodoka exclaimed.

Sam could only groan.

****

"Mmm…catnip…gimme more…oh, yeah…"

If one was to look into the window of Room 3500 right now, they would see quite an unusual sight. For our friend Blaze was licking her pillow, very much absorbed in her dream.

That is…until she licked up a feather from said pillow, and started choking.

"Gah! Ech! Ech! Urgh…stupid feather…ruined a perfect dream…" She mumbled as she coughed it up.

When she looked around, she realized her friends were nowhere to be seen. "Great…they left me…" She sighed, then swung open the door of the mini fridge. She was about to reach for a soda, when she saw a small slip of paper. She smirked. Of course her friends knew that the first place she went to after a nap was the fridge…

She picked it up and read it:

"Blaze,

Sorry for not telling you we were leaving, but you were asleep and…well, we all know how that goes.

We just went down to the gift shop to pick out postcards and stuff, plus Amy wanted to see if they had any cute shirts. I'm highly doubting it.

Anyway, just thought I'd let you know, if you wake up. We'll be back in probably a few hours, depending upon what mood Amy and Rouge are in. Currently…it's looking like we're going to be at the shop for a while…

I'm sighing right now, you know, Blaze, 'cause you're a lucky little kitty who gets to take a catnap while I have to follow around the others and say, "Oh, yeah. That looks amazing, Amy. That looks sexy, Rouge."

Oh, well. Anyway, see ya in a bit.

Love ya,

Shade.

P.S Hey, Blazey! –Star"

Blaze chuckled a bit. Shade had always hated shopping. She wasn't exactly tomboyish, but she certainly wasn't girly either.

She popped open the soda, and began to take a sip.

_Brriiinnnggg! Brrriiinnnggg!_

"AHHH!" Blaze yelped, then realized it was only the phone. She sighed. She needed to get used to these things. Sure, Gordon usually called her via maid, but that didn't mean she didn't need to get used to things like a phone.

She picked it up, holding it to her ear. "Hello?"

"_Uh, hi. This is, er, Sonic…ya know, the guy who drove you from the airport-"_

"How did you get this number?" Blaze interrupted.

"_Er, I, uh…" _Sonic was quite obviously trying to come up with some kind of excuse.

Blaze sighed. "Never mind. What is it?"

"_Oh, well…see, there's this party I'm throwing tonight. It's down on the West side of the beach, at 6:00. I was wondering if maybe...you and your friends would come?" _He asked.

Blaze raised an eye-brow. Party? "Um, Sonic…Look, I don't-"

The door of the room swung open.

"Who are you talking to?" Amy demanded from Blaze.

"…Sonic." Blaze said.

"WHAT??!!! GIVE ME THAT!!!" Amy snatched the phone away from Blaze before she could do anything.

"Hello?" She said, in her sweetest voice possible.

"_Um…who is this?" _Sonic's voice asked on the opposite line.

"I'm Amy, remember?" Amy cooed, and batted her eyelashes to no one in particular.

"_Oh…yeah…you." _Sonic said dryly.

"So, you were saying something to Blaze, hmm?" She asked, her tone becoming slightly envious, although she tried to hide it. Blaze just rolled her eyes.

"_Uh, yes. I was wondering if she…er, you guys, wanted to come this party I'm throwing tonight."_

"OH, SONIC! HOW WONDERFUL!" Amy squealed. "That's soooo sweet of you!"

"Okay, I'm taking the phone back before you embarrass us all." Blaze sighed, and grabbed the phone from a dreamy-looking Amy. "Hey, Sonic." She said.

Sonic's voice brightened considerably. _"Hey! So, is that a yes, then?"_

Blaze looked over at Amy, who was now going on and on to Star, Shade, and Rouge about how amazingly gorgeous Sonic' voice sounded over the phone. "Well, I guess so." She replied.

"_Great! I'll see you at 6:00, then!"_

"Yeah, okay. Bye." Blaze hung up the phone.

She turned to her friends. She opened her mouth to say something, but was cut short by Amy.

"Get out your hottest bikinis, ladies, 'cause we are goin' to a beach party!!!"

**A/N: Heh. So a bit of OOC here and there, but honestly, I think it's funnier that way. Anywho, hope you enjoyed!**

**P.S The chapter's called Red, White, and Blue for multiple reasons. First, Skye is red, Silver is white, and Sonic and Ryan are blue. Second, it's the Fourth of July! WOOT!**


	4. The Party's Just Begun

Sonic was sitting in a chair, only he was sitting in it backwards. He had his legs around the back, and his elbow propped against the top. Around him, preparations were being made for the party, but he was paying no attention. He was sighing dreamily every few seconds, and he was watching a certain scene in his head. One involving a lilac feline…and tongues…

"Sonic?"

Someone stopped beside him, and gave him a tap on the shoulder. "Sonic, the party's going to start in an hour. You're not even dressed yet. Snap out of it."

Sonic blinked, then shook his head. He looked up to see one of his best friends, Knuckles. "Huh? Oh. Oh, the party! Blaze!!" The blue hedgehog jumped out of his chair, and began running in place.

The red echidna standing beside him raised an eyebrow. "And what's got you so out of it today?"

"Blaze!" Sonic answered, rather cheerfully.

"Uh…huh. And I'm supposed to understand that because…?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic's eyes became distant and he swayed. "Because DAMN does she have a body!" He said dreamily. Then he re-focused. "Which is why I've got to go now. See ya, Knuckie!"

Then the Blue Blur ran off, leaving his friend shaking his head and chuckling about how Sonic would never change.

******

"Star, what goes on in your head is beyond my comprehension."

The yellow African pygmy rolled her eyes, and turned her head to Amy. "And what do you mean by that?" She asked.

"You've been sitting there _drawing_ ever since I told you about the party!" Amy exclaimed.

Star smiled. Amy _was_ right. She was sitting upon the windowsill, which was wide enough for one to sit, looking down at the sunset in the horizon. The magnificent shades of orange, red, pink, and purple, mixed with the cloudless baby blue of the sky sent chills down her spine. She had taken several pictures, but had wanted to try and capture it with her own hands.

"So I have." Star shrugged, brushing back her quills.

Amy let out a very over-dramatic, exasperated sigh. "Starlight Jane…what am I going to do with you? You have to get ready! We're leaving in an _hour_!"

Star stifled her laugh. "Amy, all I have to do is throw on a bikini and tie my quills back. That will take about ten minutes."

"Ten minutes we won't have by the time I'm done with your make-up!"

"May I ask why the make-up I currently have on isn't sufficient?" Star sighed.

"Because it's day time make-up! We're going to a night time party! You have to look sexy, not sweet!" Amy said, like she always did, as though it was the most logical thing in the world.

Star shook her head, grinning, but stood up, and held her arms out, as though welcoming Amy in. "Alright, then. Do your worst." Then she thought for a second, and added, "And I meant that figuratively…really, I would rather not end up your color."

Amy scoffed, then dragged Star over to the bathroom.

Meanwhile, Rouge was helping out Shade. Er, _trying_ to.

"Would you stand still?!" Rouge exclaimed, as Shade fidgeted in her chair.

"Is this really necessary? I mean, look, I'm sure there's a way that-what the hell is that?!!" Shade jumped out of the chair and flew back about three feet as Rouge brought out a tube of liquid.

The bat rolled her eyes. "It's mascara."

"Masca-what-a?"

"It goes on your eyelashes. Now come here." Rouge gestured to Shade.

The peach echidna came over, mumbling to herself. "This has to be some form of torture in another country…"

Blaze was sitting on her bed, flipping through the channels. She was already ready and had to admit the bikini Amy had bought for her wasn't awful. She had actually admired herself in the mirror a few minutes ago, although she would never give Amy the satisfaction of knowing that.

Blaze grinned. Never.

*******

"I can't believe I'm wearing this…"

Skye was sitting in Room 2341, hugging her knees. Somehow she had allowed Ryan to convince her to wear a bikini. Somehow.

"I mean, what IS this thing? It's a piece of cloth strapped over…well…" She trailed off, sighing.

"Honestly, it looks great."

Skye looked up to see Ryan standing in the bathroom doorway, with nothing but his trunks on. He was giving her a very wide grin.

"…It certainly doesn't _feel_ so great…" She mumbled.

"I'm telling you, if you want to catch some guy's eye, you have to wear a bikini." Ryan shrugged. "And, trust me, you _will_ catch some guy's eye…" He grinned even wider, making Skye wonder if it was possible that he could make it into the Guinness World Records. "In fact, you already have…"

Skye narrowed her eyes at him, clearly not amused. "I could slap you for that, you know."

He chuckled. "Come on, let's go. We'll be late."

*******

"Hmm…which one do you like best? I dunno, the purple one is nice but I think it blends a bit too much with my fur…green? Nah. Ooh! Midnight blue. Maybe. I'm just not sure…"

'_Why…why?...why?!'_

Sam was slowly banging his head back and forth against the wall, trying to tone out the sound of Nodoka going on and on about which swim suit to buy. The dull pain that came every time his head met wall was about the only thing keeping him from going completely insane. How girls could enjoy things such as this was beyond him.

After quite a while of said banging, and a few groans in there somewhere, Nodoka finally turned to him.

"Okay, what time is it now?" She asked.

Sam weakly looked up, then exhaled, checking his watch. "Uh…about 7:00." He leaned back and closed his eyes.

"7:00?!!!??" Nodoka yelped.

Sam gasped and flew up about three feet in the air. "What the-?" He looked at Nodoka, his eyes wide.

"You let me shop for THREE hours?! When you knew we had a party in TWO?!" She shouted.

"Uh…" Sam scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I suppose so."

She glared at him. He bit his lip very hard, praying that he could make it through this without injury. "I…uh…well, I thought you would-"

She interrupted him with a very long sigh. "Men." She rolled her eyes. "Alright, Sam." She grabbed his hand and started to drag him along. "We'll just say we got caught up in traffic."

*********

Sonic nervously tapped his foot against the wooden dance floor that had been set up on the beach. Blaze and her friends still hadn't arrived, and it was already 7:00. All around him, couples were dancing, and laughing, and quite a few were actually asking him for an autograph. Of course, he was far too pre-occupied to notice this.

He looked out at the horizon and saw his best friends surfing out in the waves. The waves this time of year were brilliant, and any other time Sonic wouldn't have thought twice about joining them, and showing them his famous spin-dash-aboard-a-surf-board. But while there was a chance of Blaze coming, well…He grinned. He would wait as long as he had to.

Sonic felt a tap on his shoulder, and he turned. Standing there was a sopping wet Silver, who was grinning.

Sonic laughed. "Have fun out there?" He asked.

Silver nodded. "Hell yeah, Sonic. You should join us. The water's great and Knuckles made up this new move. Of course, he's the only one who can do it because he's the only one who has spikes on his knuckles, but it's still pretty cool-"

Sonic interrupted him. "I'm waiting for someone."

Silver raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

"Someone I met today. I was her cab driver. Just wait 'till ya see her, Silv!" Sonic exclaimed.

Silver snorted. "And what species is this one?" He asked, grabbing a Pina Colada off of a passing bartender's tray. "Pig?" He snickered.

Sonic turned slightly red. "Er…she's a…"

Silver took a sip of his drink. "Go on…" He gestured with his hand.

Sonic sighed. "She's a cat."

Silver choked on his drink, laughing hysterically. "A cat?! Sonic, is something wrong with your head?" He fell to his knees, unable to control himself. "Damn, that would be one strange looking baby…"

Sonic narrowed his eyes at him. "Way to be mature, Silver." He sighed.

Silver was still laughing. "First it's that human girl, Elise, now it's a cat-"

"I NEVER LIKED ELISE!!" Sonic barked. "She was just a friend…"

"Oh, sure. And that's why she kissed you and somehow that magically made you come back to life. I swear, it was just like Sleeping Beauty…" Silver stood up and started prancing about the dance floor singing '_Once Upon A Dream'_, pausing every now and again to take on another fit of laughter.

Sonic grumbled to himself, and turned back towards the stairs that led down to the beach, hoping he would see Blaze coming down them soon.

********

"I _cannot_ believe we're late. Especially to _Sonic's_ party! Oh my God, I feel so ashamed…" Amy was burying her head in her hands, sobbing, as the cab driver drove the five girls down to the beach.

Blaze sighed. "Amy, come on, we're only an hour late. Everyone is late sometimes. We'll say we got caught up in traffic."

"My soul mate…alone…wondering where I am…thinking I've forgotten about him…" Amy sobbed louder.

Blaze rolled her eyes, and gazed out the window, wondering if Sonic really was wondering where they were. Maybe he was waiting for them, or better yet, maybe he was just waiting for her…

Blaze shook her head, pushing away her child-like fantasies. It was best not to get her hopes up, then have them crushed like so many times before.

"Ames, we're almost there." Star put a comforting hand on Amy's shoulder. "We'll be sure to tell him we're sorry."

"Look, there it is." Shade pointed to a large mass of bodies on the beach, accompanied by flashing lights and loud music.

Amy instantly perked up, wiping away her tears. She turned to Rouge. "My make-up isn't smeared, is it?!" She asked, desperately.

Rouge chuckled. "It's fine, dear."

The cab driver pulled up to the parking lot that led to the beach. The girls climbed out of the car, all of them very excited, some visibly, others secretly.

Amy immediately began sprinting towards the beach, running as fast as she possibly could in her heeled sandals. "Sonic!" She cried.

Star grinned, and turned to the others. "Come on, we'd better go get her before she embarrasses herself again."

The quartet walked down to the beach together, and meanwhile caught quite a few eyes. They were all dressed in bikinis, and while all of them but Rouge and Amy felt rather self conscious, they couldn't ignore the fact that they looked great.

Star stopped at the end of the stairs. She gazed out at the ocean, and slowly placed her foot onto the sand. She wanted to remember this.

"Coming?" Blaze had taken a few paces ahead of Star, and now was looking over her shoulder at her.

Star turned her gaze to meet Blaze's and smiled. "Yeah, I'm coming."

The four met up with Amy, who was scanning the crowd for Sonic. "I can't find him _anywhere_!" She growled.

Blaze shrugged. "Let's go look then."

She started to walk forward, when someone grabbed her by the arm, and pulled her aside.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah. Slow down there, girl. You know _Sonic_? Like, the most popular guy at school?"

"What the-?" Blaze blinked, then slowly turned around.

Standing there was an aqua blue cat, wearing a dark blue bikini. She was grinning at Blaze, with her arms crossed over her chest, and her golden eyes gleaming.

"…So? I asked if you really knew Sonic." She said. "The name's Cosmos, by the way. Samantha Cosmos, really, but call me Cosmos."

Blaze anxiously glanced back at her friends. They shrugged, and she looked back over at the cat. "Er, yes, I suppose so. I mean, I've met him."

"Uh-huh. And what makes you think he's looking for you?" Cosmos asked, raising an eyebrow.

Blaze turned slightly red. "I never said…I just…he invited us, so-"

Cosmos snorted. "He invited everyone here." She turned to Star, Rouge, Shade, and Amy. "But I've never met you girls."

"We're new here. Do you know Sonic?" Amy asked.

Cosmos shrugged. "I guess you can say that. Of course, everyone knows Sonic. He's dated, like, every girl in Sapphire City. But, since you're new here, I guess you wouldn't know that."

Amy looked crushed. "No…we wouldn't…"

Cosmos slung her arm through Blaze's, and then did the same to Star's. "But now that you're with me, you'll know everyone here in a jiffy!" She started pulling the girls along with her, towards where the main party was. "I'm the girl to go to for all the latest gossip. Oh, see, look over there!" She pointed to a white hedgehog, talking to a yellow fox. "Those two are Silver and Tails. Well, Tails is really called Miles, but what kind of name is that? I can totally see why he goes by Tails. Anyway, he's like this super genius, and he won all these science prizes last year. The white hedgehog, Silver, is the luggage guy at the Hibiscus. He and Tails are two of Sonic's best friends-"

"Wasn't Silver our luggage guy?" Star whispered to Rouge, as Cosmos continued to ramble on. Blaze was slowly looking more and more irritated.

Rouge shrugged. "I don't know. Amy, do you-" She stopped, when she saw Amy was paying no attention to what Cosmos (or anyone, for that matter) was saying. She was scanning the crowd for Sonic again.

Meanwhile, Cosmos continued to dish out every piece of information about every single person in the mass of dancing bodies. As they got closer, the music got louder, and Cosmos' voice rose. Star noticed Blaze was starting to get rather warm…

"Oh, heh. Look over there." Cosmos pointed at someone, and when Star didn't look, she grabbed Star's face and turned it. "See him?" She asked.

"Who am I looking for?" Star asked, trying to keep the weariness out of her voice.

"The echidna, of course." Cosmos rolled her eyes, as if Star had asked something totally absurd. She reminded Star slightly of Amy…

"Echidna?" Star raised a brow, then she found him. Her eyes widened.

"That's Knuckles. Total tough guy, but deep down he's a real soft-ee. Every girl on the cheerleading team is after him, 'cause last year he caught the winning touchdown of the high school Super Bowl. But everyone knows his true passion is surfing. All of Sonic's crew love surfing." Cosmos said. "See that girl there?" She pointed to a blue rabbit. "She's totally checking out his tail."

"His tail?" Blaze snorted, and started cracking up. "Did you really just say she was checking out his tail?"

"What? Of course she is." Cosmos shrugged.

"I think everyone here is a bit messed up in the head." Blaze whispered to Star. When Star didn't respond, Blaze turned to look at her directly. "Oh, no…" Blaze said, as she noticed Star had an Amy-like look in her eyes. "Not you too. It's our first day, you can't fall in love already!"

"And that's Skye and Ryan." Cosmos pointed to an uneasy-looking crimson hedgehog, walking along with a grinning blue hedgehog, with black highlights. "Skye would never admit it, but everyone knows they totally have a thing for each other. Or, at least, Ryan does. It's totally obvious. I personally think Skye's got her eye on Sonic, but-"

"On _Sonic_?!!" Amy screeched, suddenly a very big part of the conversation. Apparently, she had been listening, after all. Or maybe she had just heard the mention of Sonic's name…

"Not to worry, girl." Cosmos waved her off. "I heard from Silver that Sonic's got his eye for some other girl. But he won't tell me who." She shrugged. "Ah, well. Shall we continue with our little tour?"

"Actually, I was thinking-" Blaze tried to pull away, but to no avail.

"Oh, look!! Now _there_ is one rare sight to see." Cosmos jerked Blaze and Star away from the sight of the red echidna, and towards someone else. Rouge sighed, and grabbed Amy's arm, following them.

"Who is it _now_?" Blaze sighed, not trying to contain her irritation. It was very much present in her tone.

Cosmos pointed to a rather strange looking hedgehog. Not strange looking as in ugly, but…different. She was very light blue in color, and her quills twisted upwards. She had sharp, violet eyes, wore a ragged bikini, and looked out of place in the crowd.

"_That_ would be Mist. Her name fits her perfectly, as she's, like, this total mystery girl. Apparently, she lives all alone on the beach, and always has. She doesn't go to school, and she doesn't have a family, and she never talks to people. I don't think I've ever heard her speak. Seeing her is rare…she's almost always out in the ocean. People say she was raised by dolphins, but that's just a rumor, and it probably isn't true either, because people say she eats jellyfish all the time, and, I mean, who would eat jellyfish? That's disgusting. Anyway, I can't believe she's at this party. She usually stays away from people. Or any kind of society, for that matter." Cosmos gushed. "I think that she's…"

"Let's get away from this girl while we can!" Blaze whispered urgently to Star. Star nodded, and grabbed Shade's arm, pulling her down and whispering in her ear. The whispers went down in a line through the girls, and ten seconds later, Blaze sucked in a deep breath.

"NOW!" She shouted, and the girls all ran as fast as they could from the poor, confused figure of Cosmos.

******

Sam's ears perked up, as she thought he heard someone scream over the loud roar of the music. "What was that?" He asked Nodoka.

"Hhow ssshhould I newww??" Nodoka replied, giggling at herself.

"Ugh…Nodoka, I think you've had enough of my wine to last you a good year or two." Sam shook his head, sighing.

"Isss good." Nodoka hiccupped.

He took the glass out of her hand. "I think someone needs a good dunk in the ocean…" He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

Nodoka's eyes immediately refocused. "Sam, NO!" She cried.

"Ahahaha!" He scooped her up in his arms and started charging towards the rushing waves.

"Noooo!" She squealed, squirming desperately in his arms, but it was far too late. Sam had already gotten moving, and when he got running, there was no stopping him. He sprinted towards the ocean, clutching Nodoka tightly against his chest, curled up into a ball, and cannon-balled right into the waves.

As soon as everyone saw this, an uproar was caused. The music was cranked up even louder, and everyone charged towards the ocean, screaming with laughter, and jumping into the cold water that rushed over them and got salt in their eyes and noses.

Meanwhile, Sonic was rushing among the crowd of people, calling out for a certain feline that he was longing to see. He could have sworn he had heard her calling.

"Hey, Sonic!"

Sonic whirled around, as Knuckles ran up to him, escaping a mob of drenched teenage girls, who were all giggling and going on about how cute he was. "Huh?" Sonic asked, still looking around.

"You haven't danced or gotten into the water once. Something up?" Knuckles asked, grabbing a towel from a passing maid, and wringing out his dreadlock-like quills.

"Blaze." Sonic said, simply.

"Yes, yes, I know. Blaze. Whatever that's supposed to mean." Knuckled sighed.

"She's a girl. Hasn't Silver told you?" Sonic asked, turning to look at Knuckles directly.

Knuckles shrugged. "He went off with a group of girls earlier, but he also looked like he was looking for someone. Seems like Tails, Shadow, and I are the only ones who don't have a gal we've got our eyes on."

"I'LL BE YOUR GAL!" A girl screamed to Knuckles from another mob of teenagers.

He chuckled, but ignored her. "…Speaking of which, where _is_ Shadow?" He asked.

Sonic shrugged, then snickered. "Last time I saw him he was off snogging some poor freshman girl."

Knuckles shook his head, sadly. "Poor thing. Anyway, when'd you meet this 'Blaze'?" He asked.

"This morning. It's a long story, though, and I invited her here. She hasn't shown up yet." Sonic replied. "I've never had a girl stand me up before." He looked around, beginning to get slightly worried.

Knuckles bit his lip. "Well, maybe she's not interested, Sonic."

Sonic burst out laughing. "Not interested? In me? Yeah, right. Like that would ever happen. Every girl in Sapphire City adores me." He said, giving a cocky grin.

Knuckles rolled his eyes and muttered to himself, "Sometimes I wonder why…" Then he looked back at Sonic. "Anyway, Sonic, you should just stop looking. If she doesn't come, she doesn't. Let's go surf. The waves are wicked tonight."

Sonic sighed, his gaze finding the ground. "…Yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right…"

"Come on, Sonic, let's-" Knuckles stopped, his eyes widening. "Sweet mother of…"

"What?" Sonic raised an eyebrow. "What are you staring at?"

Knuckles raised his gloved hand to point. "Introduce me to her. I'm begging you, Sonic."

Sonic turned around, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, until he found the girl Knuckles was pointing at. Again, that stupid wave of déjà vu fell over him. What was up with that yellow hedgehog?

Wait. That yellow hedgehog. Star, right? He had driven her this morning, along with…with…

His eyes trailed slowly to the left and he felt his heart surge. Standing beside Star was Blaze.

"Blaze! Over here!" He cried, rushing towards her.

"Huh?" She turned around, and yelped as he pulled her up into a great embrace.

"I'm so glad you made it! I thought you had-" Sonic stopped, realizing what he was doing. He instantly put her down, blushing madly. "Er, my bad. I'm just excited to see you, is all."

Blaze gave him a strange look, brushing herself off. "Um…I noticed…" She said.

It was all Sonic could do to keep from drooling. She was wearing a bikini, one that was very nicely fitted.

Very nicely.

Beside him, Knuckles had walked up, and was also blushing like crazy. Lucky for him, it simply blended in with his stupid fur color. He smiled uneasily at Star, and slowly opened his mouth to speak. "I, er, my name's Knux. Knuckles. Or, Knux. Either one. It's really Knuckles, but…" He sighed, then gestured towards the dance floor. "You wanna dance?"

Star turned pink, her eyes widening slightly. "I…um…"

Amy pushed Star forward. "Yes, she would _love_ to dance with you." She told Knuckles.

Star slowly placed her hand in his, and walked with him. She glanced back over her shoulder nervously, and Shade, Rouge, and Amy gave her an enthusiastic nod. Blaze was busy with her own guy.

"So…uh, you wanna dance too?" Sonic asked her, putting his hand out for her.

"Um…Sonic…oh, I don't know…" Blaze bit her lip.

"I'll dance with you!" Amy literally threw herself on top of Sonic.

A girl standing five feet away put her hands around her lips and shouted out, "DOGPILE!!!"

"Oh, no…" Was all Sonic managed to say, before about thirty teenage girls in bathing suits dived onto him, all squealing and kissing him, and asking him for autographs.

*******

"Wanna dance?"

"Huh?" Skye looked up, to see Ryan holding her hand out for her to take. "Oh, uh, Ryan…" Her eyes found the massive pile of bodies that had once been Sonic. She had been watching him ask a lavender feline to dance, only to get dog-piled by a large group of animals. Skye sighed. How she wished she was that feline…

"Well, do you?" Ryan asked, his eyes starting to show a slight bit of worry.

Skye turned back to look at him, almost haven forgotten his presence. "Um…Ry, I'm not feeling too great, so I think I'll just sit this one out. Bit too much to drink." She lied.

He looked slightly disappointed, but nodded, sitting down next to her. "Okay. Is there anything I can get for you?" He asked.

"…Hmm?" Skye replied, not really paying attention, as she watched the Blue Blur attempt to escape the many girls.

"I said, is there anything I can get for you?"

"Oh. Oh, no. I'm fine, thanks. Just need some fresh air. Er, some time alone. Er…not to dance. Yeah, that's it. I don't feel well enough to dance." She said to him, coming up with rather lame excuses.

"Hmm…you know, I think I know the perfect cure for that. You need to be refreshed, right?" Ryan asked her.

"Um…yeah. Okay." Skye answered, not knowing what exactly she was answering to. She had stopped listening, and was watching enviously as Sonic managed to escape the girls, and walked back up to the feline, trying way too hard to appear sexy. Skye had to admit, it was actually rather cute.

"Well then…" Ryan began, grinning.

Skye gasped as the chair was swept out from under her, and she was suddenly in Ryan's arms. "Ryan! Ryan, put me down this instant! I said NOW!" She yelped, squirming.

"Hold still, you silly hedgehog." Ryan chuckled, and started charging towards the waves.

"What!? No, no, no!!! I wanna stay dry, I-" Skye squeezed her eyes shut, dreading the cold water she was about to face.

A few seconds later, she opened her eyes, when she didn't feel any water engulf her. Her eyes widened when she realized they were surfing…only, they weren't surfing water. They were surfing _ice_.

"Now, how's _this_ for refreshing?" Ryan cheered, and flew up off of a frozen wave. He was still holding Skye, and the two were on his Extreme Gear.

"Ryan…" Skye said nervously as he flew up again. She was deathly afraid of heights. **(A/N: Don't know if she really is or not, and I probably shouldn't say that 'cause she isn't my character, but oh well. Sorry, Bureizu!)**

"Just hold on tight!" He exclaimed, and he began to hang ten. Skye's eyes widened and she gaped.

"We're gonna fall, we're gonna fall…good bye cruel world!..." She cried.

Ryan chuckled. "Skye, we're on the beach."

Skye opened one eye. "Humph. So we are." She hopped out of his arms, then turned around and jabbed him in the chest. "_Never_ do that again. Never." Then she stalked away.

Ryan grinned. "I'll get her one of these days…" He whispered to himself.

********

"So…are you new to Sapphire Beach?" Knuckles asked, looking down at Star. She was a few inches shorter than him, but she liked that. She always loved in romance films when the girl had to stand on her tip-toes to kiss the guy…

"Yeah, I am. Me and my friends are here for the summer, because one of my friends won a trip for five down here." She replied.

"There's five of you? Wow. That must get crazy." He said, as he side-stepped with her. The DJ had turned on a soft, simple piano tune, as the moon began to shine, illuminating the water of the ocean.

Star laughed. "Trust me, it does."

"It's cool that you're down here, though. Where are you staying?" Knuckles asked.

"The Hibiscus." She replied, looking down shyly, as his deep blue eyes gazed at her.

"Oh, yeah. Silver works there." He nodded.

"I think he delivered our luggage this afternoon, actually. Amy was rather rude to him, I hope he didn't mind." Star said.

Knuckles snorted. "Knowing Silver, I'm sure he didn't." Then he thought for a second. "Wait, is she pretty?" He asked.

Star blinked. "Huh? Er, well, yeah. Very pretty. But…why does that matter?" She tried to keep the worry from creeping into her voice. Surely this guy wasn't a player…

"Oh, it doesn't matter. He just seemed to be looking for someone, is all. I just wondered if it was her." Knuckles replied.

"Oh…maybe." She shrugged.

About three feet away from them, Sonic had managed to get Blaze to dance, sending Amy off crying. Rouge had told Blaze to go on, that she would comfort Amy, and so Blaze had reluctantly agreed to dance.

He held her close now, clutching her small, delicate hand in his. He was beginning to realize that he actually liked her personality as well, not just her amazing body. She was hot and fierce, but graceful and gentle. He liked that. He liked it a lot.

"So…what do you think now?" He grinned at her. "About Sapphire Beach, I mean."

"I think it's lovely." She smiled softly back at him.

"You're lov- I mean, yes. Yes, it is very lovely." He replied, immediately catching himself.

She chuckled slightly. "You live here, right?" She asked.

"Yep. All my life. Grown up running back and forth along this beach. I know every inch of it by heart." Sonic replied.

"I've got to say, it's an amazing place." Blaze replied, looking up at the sky. "I've never seen stars like these. Back home, we're lucky if we get one or two a night. But here…there must be millions up there." She said.

Sonic followed her gaze, then looked back down at her. She was still entranced with the sky, but he was entranced with her. He slowly began memorizing everything about her. The slender curve of her chin, the way her fur was lined along her neck, the striking rose red of the jewel placed right in the middle of her forehead…

She caught him looking at her, and raised an eyebrow. "Something the matter?" She asked.

"Huh?" He blinked. "Oh. Oh, no. No. Everything's great. Perfect, actually." He grinned.

She couldn't help but smile.

And as she took a glance over at Star, she realized Star was smiling too.

********

About a quarter mile down the beach, an ebony hedgehog was slowly walking along the shore. In the distance, there were faint flashing lights and one could barely hear the sound of disco music starting back up.

He smirked to himself. "You think the party's over? This party has just begun."

********

A/N: …I…finally…update!! It's been a month, and I'm terribly sorry. I've been quite busy, and haven't really focused as much on this as I need to. So, I hope you liked this VERY long chapter!

By the way, I hope it wasn't too rushed. I was trying to get this in before I go to camp tomorrow, so…yeah. If I read it later and find it needs some major editing, I'll revise it.

Star belongs to me.

Sam, Nodoka, and Cosmos belong to ADarknessInHeaven.

Skye belongs to Bureizu za Vampire.

Ryan belongs to No Line on the Horizon.

Mist belongs to AmyRoseRocks314.

Possibly, more OCS to come.


	5. One Big Mess

The tan-colored echidna watched from afar, her sharp blue eyes narrowed, her plump lips pressed together in a frown. Ahead of her, a great crowd of people were dancing, drinking, swimming, and doing all matter of seemingly innocent things that were most certainly _not_ innocent. Bright strobe lights pierced the shadows of the beach, and the speakers were vibrating with some sort of rap music that the echidna didn't have the time to listen to.

Some _thing_ was dancing with Knuckles. _Her _Knuckles.

It was sickening.

'_Cool it, Tikal'._ She told herself, crossing her arms. '_It's not as though he has any interest in her whatsoever. He'd better not, if he knows what's good for him.'_

With a smirk on her face, and a devilish look in her eye, she stalked forward into the crowd of people. A few wolf whistles came in her direction, and she sent a wink to a handsome black panther. She only had to remind herself a couple of times that no, she needed to focus. She could tease them later. Right now, she had to teach someone their place in this town.

Running a hand through her quills, she made her way towards Knuckles and the yellow hedgehog. Tikal gave the hedgehog a quick look-over. Small bust, small butt, huge eyes, really _what_ did Knuckles see in this girl?

Right. Nothing. At least, not after he reminded himself what _Tikal's_ bust-size was.

She burst out of the crowd of people and smack into where the two were dancing.

"Why, hello there, sweetheart." Tikal brushed up against Knuckles, batting her eyelashes and catching him completely off-guard, exactly as she had wanted. He let go of the yellow hedgehog's hands, stumbling to the side a bit, and stuttering, "O-oh, uh, Tikal! Hey, I, um, I didn't know you were here."

"Of _course_ I'm here! How could I miss a party like _this_?" She asked, placing her hands on his chest, her voice sickeningly sweet.

"Yeah…some party, isn't it?" He smiled at her, then remembered Star and glanced in her direction.

Tikal immediately pulled his face back towards her. "I've missed you, honey. It's been so lonely without you. How 'bout we go back to the bar, hmm? I don't think it's very crowded right now…In fact, I think it's almost deserted." She wiggled her eyebrows.

An uneasy grin appeared on his face. "That's awful nice of ya, Ti, but I was…well, I was kinda dancing with Star, here." He gestured to the yellow hedgehog, who was still awkwardly standing there, a blush creeping across her cheeks.

'_Damn.' _Tikal thought. '_There's her hook. She's got a damn good blush. Sweet and innocent, but it makes her look hot._

_Ugh.'_

She'd lost this argument, Tikal could see that plainly written across Knuckles' face. But, this party wasn't over. She'd observe the two from afar, and find the weak link, as she had so many times before.

After all, she was only protecting what was rightfully hers.

***********************************************************************

Shade sighed, going over to the outdoor bar, rather tired of this party already. All of her friends had either gone off with a guy, gone off crying, or gone off to comfort the one who was crying. She would have gone with Rouge to comfort Amy, but she probably would have gotten fed up with Amy's carrying-on and told her to suck it up. And that wouldn't exactly be what you would call helpful.

She took a seat at one of the tall bar stools positioned in the sand, and ordered a Piña Colada. Whilst waiting for the bartender to make the drink, she glanced over at the civilian sitting a few stools away from her; an orange armadillo. He was wearing a black Under Armour shirt, and swim trunks, his eyes tiredly watching the twinkling lights of the city, his head propped up by his arm, his cheek squashed by the palm of his hand.

"Well, you look happy," Shade remarked sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

He turned to her, his yellow irises meeting her lavender ones. "Hmm?" He asked, his tone bored.

"Nevermind," Shade shook her head, taking her drink from the bartender, "You just look lonely."

"I'm not." He replied, before turning away again.

Shade gave the back of his head a blunt look. "Nice to meet you too," She sighed.

The two sat in an irritating silence for a while, although it was probably only irritating for Shade. The armadillo didn't seem in the least bit bothered. He just kept scanning the crowd, the same bored look plastered on his face, his yellow eyes dull and tired, his li-

Wait. Had she actually seen something like _emotion _flicker through his gaze? No. No, that was impossible.

She turned her head, trying to find what he was looking at. She furrowed her eyebrows, searching and…oh. Duh.

Rouge was standing not far away, talking with a group of other bat civilians. Of course, it was only natural that the armadillo would notice her curvy figure and long eyelashes. Everyone did.

"You got a thing for Rouge, huh?" Shade asked the armadillo, turning back towards him.

He blinked, raising an eyebrow, "Eh?"

She rolled her eyes. "The bat. You know, the one with the black bikini that makes her look like a supermodel out of _Vanity Fair_." She told him.

His eyes fell upon Rouge again, and then moved back to meet Shade's. He shrugged. "She's alright. So what if I do?"

Shade shrugged as well. "Wouldn't surprise me. She's got every guy from here to Blue Ridge Zone after her."

Shade couldn't help but feel a little proud of herself when she saw a smirk appear on the armadillo's face.

"Shade." She extended a hand.

He met her gaze, then slowly shook her hand. "Allyn."

It was Shade's turn to smirk. "Fitting."

"What was that?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, nothing." She snickered. "So you gonna go say something to her, or are you going to sit here and mope all night?"

"Say something to the bat?" He laughed, and Shade nearly jumped out of her seat. She didn't know he was capable of a laugh. "Yeah, right. She's occupied, anyway," He said.

Shade quickly recovered her nonchalant attitude, and cocked her head to the side, "I can introduce you if you'd like."

A bit of interest edged Allyn's tone, "You know her?"

"Oh, she's only one of my best friends." A smile tugged at Shade's lips.

Allyn seemed to think about it for a second, then shook his head. "Nah, I'm good." He turned away, taking a sip of his Rum and Coke.

Shade's jaw dropped. "You…You're giving up on an excuse to talk to _Rouge_?! _No one_ gives up on an excuse to talk to Rouge!"

"I'm not everyone else." He replied, simply.

"Well, _that's_ sure as hell!" She exclaimed, which achieved a small chuckle from Allyn. "Really, _what_ is up with you? I mean, why even come to this party?" She asked, hardly able to believe this character.

He turned to face her, sighing. "The murder charges," he replied. "Basically, Ryan."

Shade blinked, rather surprised by his answer. "…Murder charges?" She asked, her tone much quieter.

Allyn took another sip of his drink, asking, "You haven't heard about them?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm new here. I'm from Green Hill Zone. Only down here for the summer." She explained.

He nodded his head thoughtfully, then jerked his head towards someone. "See that guy over there? The light blue hedgehog, with the black highlights that are totally visible even though he's trying to cover them with make-up? Yeah, that one. That's Ryan.

"About a year ago, he was charged with the murder of a sixteen year old girl at our high school. It was a mess. No one thought Ryan could do such a thing; he was just way too nice. But all evidence proved otherwise. Anyway, he's been sneaking around lately, trying to disguise himself and all, but everyone can tell it's him. There are a few who are freaked out by him, and others who think he's the life of the party." Allyn leaned back, placing his hands behind his head and crossing his legs.

"Me? I don't really have an opinion on him. My opinion is what I observe, and what I know. I know he was charged with murder, that he's seventeen years of age, and a bunch of other stuff that you probably don't care about. Oh, and I know he has a massive crush on Skye, that red hedgehog. Anyway, my job is to watch and learn. You could say I'm a bit of a detective for…oh, an organization or two…and I'm keeping my eye on him, regardless of whether that happy look on his face is real or faked."

Shade listened carefully, intrigued. "Huh, so there is a mystery behind this town after all," She said. "I thought it was all fun and games. But, how is he still around like this and not, like, in jail?"

Allyn snorted. "Because the police here are total idiots. They aren't used to cases like this, and they're stupid enough to fall for Ryan's little make-up ensemble. Not to mention the fact that Ryan could easily freeze their blood if he wanted to, so he probably made a deal with a few of them that he wouldn't hurt them as long as they left him alone."

A bit of a grin appeared on Shade's face, her head resting in the palm of her hand. "So, a detective, eh? I s that why you're so serious?"

He shrugged, and it was obvious that his little bout of friendliness was over.

The two were quiet for a few minutes, but Shade's grin continued to grow. Finally, she grabbed his arm, causing him to jump in surprise.

"What the-?" He started.

Shade gave him a teasing look, "Whether you're here for the party, or you're here for the case, you're going to meet Rouge. Come on, you've got to have some fun every once in a while."

"Whoa, whoa, hey wait-!"

But Shade was already dragging Allyn out of his seat, down towards where Rouge was standing. She was circled by even more guys now, and talking casually, even though Shade was sure Rouge knew they were all checking her out.

"Hi, Rouge!!" Shade said a bit too loudly, obviously trying to pull Rouge's attention away from the guys. "I see you stopped trying to help Amy."

"Oh, hey, hun," Rouge smiled at Shade. "Yeah, Ames didn't really want my help, so I just gave up. No sense getting myself upset over something that I can't control. So what's up, sugarplum?"

Shade shrugged, trying to keep herself from snickering. "Oh, I just wanted to see what you're up to. Also, I have a friend here who wanted me to introduce him to you."

Allyn scoffed disdainfully, but Shade could have sworn she saw the slightest bit of red brushing his cheeks.

"Oh? Why, hello there." Rouge smiled kindly at Allyn, who grunted in reply.

"His name's Allyn." Shade elbowed the armadillo teasingly.

Rouge's smile turned to a grin. "Allyn...it's nice to meet you."

"Right, well, I'll be going now." Allyn told the two, then started walking away at a rather quick pace.

Shade blinked, then whirled around, "Woah, wait! Allyn!" She ran after him.

He sighed heavily when she caught up to him. "Why are you following me?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at her, his expression weary.

"Because I can't figure you out! Rouge…she was going to talk to you. Hell, she even smiled! Bud, last time I checked, that's a good sign!" Shade exclaimed, giving him an incredulous look.

That common smirk stretched across his lips again. "Shade, it was very nice to meet you, and your friend, but I don't have the time nor the interest for romance. I've got a case to solve."

And with that last comment, he moved smoothly away from the party, leaving an utterly confused Shade frozen in her tracks.

**********

"Ugh, Sam!! There goes my hair…"

Nodoka climbed out of the water, sopping wet, her quills dripping in front of her eyes. "I swear, sometimes…" She shot Sam a look, as he grinned and squirted water at her.

"Ah, come on, Doka-chan, live a little!" He told her, snickering when she gave him a devilish glare.

"_Don't _call me Doka-chan," She growled, then sighed, closing her eyes and wringing out her hair with a sandy towel. "You know, I could really go for another one of those marga-" She was interrupted, as something warm and salty pressed against her lips.

She opened her eyes slightly, and smiled, "Yeah, well, this works too…" She mumbled, then closed her eyes again, wrapping her arms around Sam's neck and kissing him more deeply.

"_No more talk of darkness, forget these wide-eyed fears_-" Sam whispered in her ear, but Nodoka pushed him away, laughing and saying, "Oh, now don't start _that_ again!"

Sam rested his chin on her head and smiled. "This better?" He asked.

Nodoka rolled her eyes, but grinned. "Yeah. Yeah, that's better."

"You know, you look fantastic tonight. That bikini…_man_…"

Nodoka burst out laughing, elbowing him in the ribs. "You are such a dork. Honestly, I don't know why I fell for you." She told him, shaking her head.

He gave her a cocky grin, "Why, because of my incredible looks! My charming smile, my amazing abs, oh, and have you seen these chocolate brown eyes of mine?" He winked at her.

"Oh, yes, that's why…" She snickered, then nuzzled her head against his chest, sighing contentedly.

"Love ya, Doka-chan." Sam whispered, then kissed her ear.

****

Amy sat underneath a deck, her arms wrapped around her knees, sniffling quietly. She was rather uncomfortable, and she was sure her bikini was ruined, as she was sitting on a pile of wet rotten driftwood. But she didn't care. She had just arrived, and already she'd had her heart broken.

It just wasn't fair! Blaze had always had the most amazing body in their group, except maybe Rouge. And Star had her beautiful eyes and her blush, and that radiant smile. Hell, even Shade had her witty way of speaking! But, Amy? She was just average. Sure, all the girls told her she was gorgeous, but she knew they were just trying to make her feel better. She annoyed guys, and she knew she even annoyed her best friends.

A low sob escaped her lips and she buried her face in her hands. She felt ridiculously childish, but she couldn't help it. She'd felt this way for a long time now, and it was just now releasing itself from its bottle inside of her.

A twig snapped, causing her to jerk her head upward. She was in pitch black darkness, and wouldn't be able to see if someone was there. She quivered slightly, calling out, "H-hello? Wh-who's there?" She wiped her eyes, blinking into the darkness.

A low sound was audible in the dim, and at first Amy thought it was the wind. Then she realized it sounded like…

Breathing?

She froze, her blood turning to ice. No, that was most definitely not the sound of the wind. Someone was there. And they were close. Close enough she could hear them breathing.

"G-go away!" She exclaimed weakly, fear clouding her tone.

A rock tumbled down from behind her, and she whirled around, the scream stuck in her throat.

"Why, hello there."

*****

"I see you like Apple Martinis," Ryan smiled at Skye, who was eagerly sipping at said Apple Martini. "Careful, they're poisonous," He teased.

She gave him a look. "Oh, don't even start with me, Ryan. As if you haven't had enough to drink tonight."

The two were sitting at a deserted part of the beach, a ways away from the incredible noise of the party. Ryan liked it here. He was able to listen to the waves washing up against the shore, mixed with the hilarious slurping of Skye. It seemed she had developed a new passion, and it was rather hard not to laugh a-

A blood-curdling scream pierced the night, soaring higher than the pounding of the music, and causing Ryan to look up, his eyes wide, while causing Skye to spill her drink all over herself.

She ignored it completely, worriedly asking, "Please tell me that's not-"

But Ryan had already taken off, running towards where the scream had come from.

***

Star froze, her breath choking up in her throat. She whipped around, staring wide-eyed at Blaze, "That-that wasn't…?"

"Amy." Blaze breathed, and the two looked at each other for a split second, before Star grabbed Blaze's hand and the two raced forward.

"My God, was that Amy?!" Shade cried, catching up with the two.

Star gulped, saying, "I hope not. I really, honestly hope-"

"It was Amy, Star. I'd know that scream anywhere." Blaze interrupted, her eyes set straight ahead, her expression dead serious.

Star exchanged a glance with Shade, and the trio ran even faster.

***

"Hey, shh, baby, it's alright…"

Amy screamed again, tears pouring down from her eyes as she desperately tried to push whoever was on her off. She still couldn't see who it was in the shadows of the dock, and she had never been so scared in her entire life.

"Get off of me!" She cried, trying to jam her foot into the guy's groin, but a hand clamped over her mouth, and all she could do was squirm and struggle and cry, hoping that someone would find her, as his hands worked to untie her bikini strings.

This was it. It was hopeless. He was going to steal the one thing she could never get back, all because she had been stupid enough to run off on her own.

"Hey! Get your filthy hands off her, you bastard!"

A new voice came through the darkness, and a rush of hope flew through Amy's chest. Had someone actually heard her screams?

The body was thrown off of her, and there was a great amount of grunts and rustling in the darkness. Amy lay there frozen with fear for a few seconds, then squirmed up to the top of the driftwood pile, her eyes wide and terrified, unable to cry out for help.

"You ass, the girl is a-oof!" The other voice.

A grunt of anger. The voice of the one who had tried to…tried to…

Amy's body shook with sobs and her heart was beating uncontrollably. She couldn't think it, let alone say it, and she just wanted to go back home to peaceful Green Hill Zone.

The sound of smashing driftwood. A cry of pain. A fist into a stomach.

"Hey, come back here!" The other voice again, and suddenly the breath flew out of Amy's lungs as something fell on top of her.

A light pierced through the darkness, blinding Amy's eyesight. She squeezed her eyes closed, whimpering.

"You!" An even higher voice. Amy slowly opened her eyes, to see the silver hedgehog standing above her, the one who had delivered her luggage just that morning. Amy never thought she would see him again, and now she had never been so happy to see someone in her entire life.

And, best of all, he was surrounded by a group of policeman.

The one who had fallen on top of her sprang up. He was light blue in color, with deep black highlights and wide eyes. He raised his hands in surrender, as there were policeman pointing guns at him.

The silver hedgehog leapt down, giving the light blue hedgehog an awful threatening look as he scooped Amy into his arms. "Filth," he spat. "And I thought you were innocent, Ryan."

The silver hedgehog clutched Amy close to his chest and ran off, ignoring the sounds of the light blue hedgehog yelling, "No, I'm innocent! I swear!"

"Jesus, what did he do to you?" The silver hedgehog asked, gently placing Amy in the sand, far away from the scene.

Amy trembled, shaking her head and sobbing, "N-nothi-nothing. He…he wasn't able to…he didn't-" She burst out crying, burying her head into the hedgehog's chest, unable to take it anymore.

He blinked, a bit surprised, but he slowly placed a hand on her back. "Shhh…"He whispered, gently stroking her fur. "Hey, it's okay. I rescued you, didn't I? You're going to be just fine…" He gently lifted her face, so he could meet her gaze. "I'm Silver. And you're safe now. I promise."

"…I'm…A-Amy."

"That's a very nice name, Amy."

"…Thank you."

Silver smiled, knowing she was thanking him for more than just his compliment.

"…You're welcome."

***

"What happened?"

Sonic turned to find Shadow running towards him, his black and red quills whipped back by the breeze.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Sonic replied, pointing to the lit place along the beach where the scream of the girl had come from.

Shadow watched as a few policeman dragged away a light blue and black hedgehog. "You think it was a rape?" He asked.

"Certainly sounded like one. But…Ryan…" Sonic shook his head. "God, I just can't believe it was him. I mean, Ryan's not like that…"

Shadow sighed, "You don't know that, Sonic. Sometimes, people just get desperate, and it twists them. Maybe Skye's broken his heart more than we thought she did."

"But, Shad, I saw them together earlier! And then they left together, and…well, I didn't see him after that," Sonic told him.

"Exactly. Who knows what he did to Skye…made some deal with her or something. Look," Shadow pointed. "She's pleading his innocence."

"Do you think she's telling the truth?" Sonic asked, turning to look at Shadow.

Shadow kept watching the scene. "Don't know. It's certainly possible that she promised to protect him if he got caught," He replied.

"But…Skye? That seems rather unlikely, Shadow."

The ebony hedgehog nodded. "Yes, well, this is Sapphire Beach, Sonic. We thought Scourge was a good buddy, and look how he turned out."

Sonic sighed. "I suppose you're right. This whole town is pretty messed up." He raised a tired eyebrow at Shadow. "Where've you been this whole time, anyway?"

Shadow smirked. "Surfing for a bit, then I…got a little side-tracked, you might say." His eyes fell upon a skinny leopard girl, surely the freshman one Silver mentioned Shadow had gone off with earlier, Sonic thought.

Sonic chuckled. "Nice."

"Yeah, I was going to play DJ a bit, but then I heard the scream," Shadow said.

Sonic shook his head, "This isn't gonna be good for publicity. Dad's not gonna be happy."

"No one's gonna be happy, Sonic. No one."

***

Star sighed, glancing down at Amy, who was sleeping now, her head resting on Star's shoulder.

She had fallen asleep in Silver's arms, and the kind hedgehog had then handed her over to the girls when they had caught up. They were currently in a taxi cab, driving back to the hotel.

Rouge glanced worriedly at Amy, as Shade brushed back Amy's quills and Blaze put her face in her hands.

"My God, what a mess."

***

**A/N: Bet you weren't expecting this, were you?**

**Anyway, I haven't updated in a while, so I thought I'd give you a nice, long, exciting chapter. I know there weren't many OCs, and I'm really sorry about that. It's hard, what with how many characters there are. **

**However, I certainly hope you enjoyed, and I hope I did your OCs properly! Thanks for reading, and please leave a review!**

**Sam and Nodoka belong to ****ADarknessInHeaven****.**

**Ryan belongs to ****No Line on the Horizon****.**

**Skye belongs to ****Bureizu za Vampire****.**

**Allyn belongs to ****Unknownlight****.**

**Knuckles belongs to me...oh, wait. No, he doesn't. Damn.**

_**Star**_** belongs to me. ;)**


	6. Silver and the Spa, Part 1

It was late. Too late for a certain hedgehog to still be prowling the streets. But he was looking for someone, a someone who had been hiding after nearly being caught trying to rape a girl. The hedgehog frowned, shaking his head. The entire mission could have been blown to bits, merely because that someone couldn't control his own desires.

"Scourge, get your ass out here."

* * *

Blaze blinked, weakly lifting her head, as a sudden light lit a section of the room. "Star, what are you doing?" she muttered, rubbing her eyes. "It's, like, 3 in the morning."

Star looked up from whatever she was doing on the laptop, and glanced over at Blaze. "Oh, whoops," she whispered. "Sorry, didn't mean to wake you."

Blaze stretched, getting out of bed and walking over to her. She cocked an eyebrow as she glanced at the laptop screen. "Star, what _are_ you doing?" she asked, rather puzzled.

Star sighed. "Trying to find something that'll help Amy out. I don't know how she'll be when she wakes up. Last night was…crazy, to say the least."

"Mmm," the feline nodded, sitting down and squeezing in next to Star. "What do you have in mind?"

Star propped her head up on one elbow, wearily staring at the screen. "I dunno. I thought about a trip to the spa, a mall trip, just staying here and talking about the whole thing, or pretending like it never happened…I have no idea what will work. She may be scarred for a while."

"I told her this trip was a bad idea," Blaze sighed. "It's my fault, really. I went off with Sonic, fully knowing how infatuated she already is with him. That's why she ran off like that."

Star shook her head. "You didn't know what it would lead to. You didn't mean to-"

"You girls going to go back to sleep? Or keep me up the rest of the night?" Shade's voice came from the connecting room.

Star snickered. "We're going, we're going. Night, Shadey."

"Night, bitch."

"We'll just see how she is in the morning," Blaze whispered, glancing over at the sleeping figure of Amy. "And we'll do some major kissing-up. I'll even let her pick out an outfit for me, if it comes to that."

Star rolled her eyes. "Go back to sleep, Blaze. I have one last thing I have to do."

"Which is?" Blaze rose a suspicious eyebrow at Star.

"Look up something on Google. You wouldn't care."

"We'll see about that," Blaze replied, sitting right back down next to Star.

"Fine," the hedgehog gave in, typing the Google URL in and arriving at the homepage. She then typed in 'Sonic the Hedgehog.'

Blaze glanced at her out of the corner of her eye. "Somehow, I wonder if this has anything to do with trying to help out Amy."

"It doesn't," Star answered, clicking on the first link that came up. "I just want to know who exactly this guy is. He's been around quite a bit, hasn't he?"

"What, you don't think it was _him_ who tried to...?"

"No, no, he was nowhere near Amy. I'm just…curious."

The laptop screen changed to a website that displayed the grinning face of Sonic, only much younger. He was standing in front of a much taller blue hedgehog, who must have been his father. Next to his father was his mother, a turquoise hedgehog with beautiful green eyes and short, curled quills.

"'_The Garnet Family Business'_," Star read, raising an eyebrow. "_'A tradition for over 100 years_.' It looks like his dad's a multimillionaire."

Blaze leaned in closer, asking, "What's the business?"

"I dunno. It just talks about the family history. Apparently the business has been handed down through the family for years. It's practically the face of Sapphire City," Star replied, her eyes scanning the webpage as she scrolled down. "Heh. He was cute when he was a kid," she pointed to a picture of a 2-year-old Sonic, holding some sort of toy plane.

"That's probably why everyone knows him. He's the next to take on the big business," Blaze concluded.

"That, and he's some sort of hero," Star nodded, jabbing a thumb towards a picture of him smirking and rescuing an old lady from a fire.

"Rather cliché, don't you think?"

"A bit, but then again this _is_ Sapphire City we're talking about. It's like Mobius' personal Las Vegas."

"…Las Vegas?" Blaze looked puzzled.

Star shrugged. "It's someplace on a planet called 'Earth.' Never been there, but it's supposed to be real crazy. People getting drunk all the time, and guys named Tiger Woods…doing stuff. They've got some pretty entertaining headlines, I'll give 'em that much," Star grinned.

Blaze elbowed her, rolling her eyes. She took the mouse, scrolling down more. "Wait, look. Isn't that the group of guys we met last night?"

Star looked closer, seeing a picture of several of the boys they'd met last night. Sonic was in the middle of them, with an arm around the white hedgehog, Silver, and Knuckles. Then there was Shadow and Tails, and one other fellow.

"Who's the green one; the one with the sunglasses?" Star asked, pointing to a green hedgehog with a black leather jacket on, his smirk showing dazzling white teeth. "I didn't see him last night."

Blaze put on her reading glasses, and read, "_Scourge the Hedgehog. Found guilty of stealing thousands of dollars from the Garnet family. All money was returned, thanks to Sonic."_

"Huh," Star chewed on her lip. "Looks like Sonic needs to be more careful when choosing his friends."

"I'm not sure if it's Son-"

"Guys! You said you were going to bed!" Shade moaned.

"Alright, alright," Starlight replied. "Going." She shut down the computer, but made sure to save the webpage first.

* * *

Amy opened one eye, noticing that the lights had been shut off again and Star and Blaze were both beginning to snore.

She sighed quietly, closing her eyes again and digging her nose into her pillow. She felt dirty; horribly, disgustingly dirty. Last night just wouldn't get out of her head. All she could see when she closed her eyes was the terrifying shadow of the creature who had tried to rape her. She hadn't been able to sleep at all tonight; she would keep having a nightmare every time she began to nod off.

Silently, she slipped out of bed, being careful not to wake the others, and slid her arms into the sleeves of her robe. She paced around the room, glad that the floor was carpeted and didn't make any creaks. All one could hear was a quiet pad as she made her way from wall to wall, trying to decide…she wasn't even sure what she was trying to decide. She just needed to do _something_.

She needed to see that white hedgehog again, Amy concluded. The one who had rescued her last night. She didn't know why, but that smile of his had made her feel so safe. Right now, she had never felt more vulnerable in her life. She was wrapped in layers of clothing, but she felt naked and scarred. Maybe he could help her get out of this hole, and make herself feel more like herself. She didn't want to feel unclean for the rest of the vacation, as it would not only ruin her time, but ruin her friends' time as well.

The pink hedgehog glanced over at her friends, their figures steadily rising and falling from underneath the blankets. She didn't want them to worry about her. She was fine, right? Just…a little shaken. Maybe all she needed was-

"Wait," she thought aloud. "The white hedgehog—his name was Silver, I think---…he delivered our luggage, didn't he?"

She remembered it clearly now, and blushed as she remembered how rude she had been to him. She had quite literally slammed the door on his face. But that was of no matter now. If he worked here, maybe that meant she could find him, and maybe…maybe she would have someone to talk to. Who made her feel better. Because as much as her friends would try, she knew they wouldn't really understand. For some odd reason, some nagging in the back of her head told her that Silver would.

She collapsed onto a chair, huddling into a tiny ball and trying to keep the tears from falling out of her eyes. It was true, she was terrified. But she wasn't going to just sit here and let the fear eat her from the inside. She had heard countless stories of the so-called "hole" that teenagers felt when something particularly hard was going on in their lives. Some let that "hole" get so large that they took their own lives. But Amy wasn't going to let that happen. She wanted to get rid of it, and get rid of it fast. She was going to rid herself of the "hole", no matter how hard that may be. And if talking to someone she hardly knew about it was the only solution, then that was what she needed to do.

"Or maybe I'm just going insane," she muttered to herself. Really, why talk to Silver of all people?! Why not her friends?

_Great, now I'm arguing with myself. _A tear flew down her cheek, but she angrily swept it away. No, she was not the kind of girl who sat around and watched. She made things happen.

Amy stood up, beginning to dig through her trunk for some clothes. For once, she didn't really mind what she put on. She just needed to go down to the lobby, anyway.

She threw on a pair of sweatpants and an old t-shirt, then quietly opened the door, slipping past. She had already made her way down to the lobby before she realized she'd forgotten shoes. Oh, well.

A purple horse citizen was seated at the front desk, his glasses falling down his nose as he busily typed at the computer. Amy came up to him, quietly asking, "May I give my compliments to a certain employee?"

The horse turned to give her a tired look. "Yeah, yeah," he replied, changing the webpage and asking her, "Alright, who is it?"

"I believe his name was Silver."

"Puh," the horse smirked, "can't believe _he's_ actually getting recommendations. You do know the guy doesn't do squat around here, don't you?"

Amy ignored him. "Yes, and I was wondering where exactly I could find him tomorrow, so as to give him my thanks personally," she smiled innocently, or, at least, the best one could smile when they felt about ready to crumple to the floor and break down.

"Eh," he sighed, squinting at the screen. "He's on trash duty at the spa. I think he comes 'round there at about 2:00 in the afternoon. I dunno, though," he shrugged. "What'd he do that was so special?"

Amy realized that she couldn't exactly tell him what Silver did. "Oh, he just-"

"Wait a second!" The purple horse took off his glasses, staring at her with wide eyes. "Aren't you that girl from the news?! The one who-"

"Thank you, bye!" Amy hurriedly took a slip of paper off of the desk and rushed to the elevator. If there was one person she _didn't_ want to talk to about last night's incident, it was the horse.

As the elevator slowly crept its way to the floor the Spa was on, she looked down at the slip of paper, happy she had picked up the right one. Written across it was: '_Spa Appointment Card. Please write your name, room number, type of spa treatment you would like, and time you would like your appointment to be. Please drop this card off in the Dropbox at the front entrance to the spa when you are finished._'

She swallowed, quickly filling out the card for five massages at 2:00. The elevator doors slid open, and she stepped forward, dropping the card in the small box positioned on top of the front desk.

As Amy stepped back into the elevator and pushed in her floor number, she silently prayed that she would get to see him. She _needed_ to see him.

* * *

Skye gritted her teeth, as she watched the news play again and again on the television. The annoyingly perfect news reporter would say it every now and again: "Last night, citizen Ryan the Hedgehog was caught attempting to rape tourist Amy Rose-"

"That's a lie!" Skye snarled at the TV, ignoring the fact that several people had now turned to give her strange looks. It was rather quiet in the entrance lobby of the hotel today, so it was strange to be hearing someone shout. Especially to a TV.

The scarlet female grimaced, slouching back down in her seat at the front desk. She grouchily started signing some papers, not caring to read what they said. Her mind was too busy going through what had happened last night. It was so ridiculous how Ryan was being accused of these crimes; he wouldn't hurt a fly. Let alone rape an innocent girl under a dock on the beach.

She averted her gaze to the front door, where a familiar face was making his way inside.

"Why, hello, Allyn," she grinned at the orange armadillo, his ever-present straight face urging her to laugh.

"Hello, Skye," he mumbled in reply as he walked up to the front desk. "I'm here for, uh…" He seemed for a moment to lose his usual put-togetherness, but quickly regained it. "I'm here to investigate a few things. This is where the-"

Skye sighed. "The girl's in room 3500, if that's what you're asking."

"Is she planning on going anywhere today?" Allyn asked, leaning against the counter.

Skye swiveled around in her chair, and turned on the computer, clicking on 'Room 3500.' "I think she has a spa appointment booked at 2:00," she replied. "But, other than that, I'm not sure. She may not exactly be up for interrogation, Allyn." The crimson hedgehog gave him a pointed look.

"It doesn't matter if she's 'up for it' or not," Allyn said simply. "I still need to know the full details of the situation. I trust you'll give me full access to the hotel?"

"Sure, sure, whatever you need," Skye rolled her eyes, tossing him some keys. "That'll get ya wherever you need to go. Just don't embarrass yourself, please," she winked at him.

Allyn snorted. "I don't think that will be happening. Thank you, Skye."

He walked away, turning the corner to the elevators. Much as he hated going to a Spa, or any place remotely _like_ a spa, he felt it was necessary if he was going to be able to get some answers from the girl.

* * *

"Okay, we are most definitely _never_ going back to that beach again," Sam sighed, running a hand through his quills. "What a disgusting-"

"Shh. Come on, relax. Nothing happened, and all you're doing is making yourself _and_ me antsy," Nodoka said, interlacing her and Sam's arms as they walked through the hotel.

"Yeah, yeah, you're right. I just can't believe anyone would do such a thing. I thought this place was supposed to be really safe," he replied.

"Apparently the travel brochure didn't tell the whole truth," Nodoka shrugged.

"Isn't the girl staying here? That one from…well, you know, last night?" Sam asked, glancing into a nearby shop window.

"I think so. I'm pretty sure she was the one on the plane who wouldn't shut up about which stores she wanted to go to," Nodoka snickered, as she looked at a shopping booth, one of the many that were scattered throughout the hotel.

"Mmm…well, whaddya wanna do today?" Sam asked, knowing quite well that Nodoka wanted to make every second of this trip count.

She turned and batted her eyelashes at him, saying sweetly, "Well, I could really go for that spa treatment you promised…"

He chuckled, "Alright, alright. One spa trip, coming up. Just don't make me get a manicure or something like that," he rolled his eyes.

* * *

"Come on, gals! Up and at 'em! I've got the entire day booked for us, and I don't want to miss a thing!"

"Ahhhh!" Rouge screamed, as the covers were pulled away from her and she was left freezing in her tiny nightgown. "Amy!"

"Wake up and smell the coffee, girls!" Amy's sing-song voice echoed around them, as she went about pulling away sheets and drawing back the curtains of the windows.

Shade stared at Amy with wide eyes. Even after last night, she was _still_ the same old Amy.

"Amy, are you quite all right?" Star asked, sleepily.

"Well, I've certainly been better," she smiled, stirring some tea at the mini-bar, "but I'm being optimistic. I'm going to meet someone today."

"Who?" Blaze asked suspiciously. _Don't tell me she's trying to hook up with Sonic…_

"That white hedgehog from…last night." Amy's voice trailed off at the last part, and the others could tell she was trying her best to not think about what had happened.

"You mean Silver?" Rouge asked, taking a seat next to Amy. "But, hun, are you sure you want to go out so soon? I mean, we understand, we could just spend a day in the hotel room if that's what you want, sweetie."

Amy immediately shook her head. "No. I want to talk to Silver. He's the one who rescued me last night, and I owe him thanks."

"Do you need to talk to one of us about it first?" Blaze prompted. "It's kind of early to be so…well…"

"We're here for you, doll," Rouge cut in, shooting Blaze a 'you're-not-helping' look.

"No, no," Amy reassured them. "I'm fine, guys, really. I want to see Silver."

"If you say so, Ames," Star nodded, but she didn't seem entirely convinced. In fact, _Amy_ wasn't entirely convinced herself that her plan would work. But she wanted to see him again, and maybe he would make her feel safe again. She still felt dirty; hell, maybe a spa trip was exactly what she needed.

* * *

Allyn glanced around him, careful to make sure that no one was watching. He slipped into the employee room of the spa, grabbing the shirt and trousers that hung from a hook on the left. He took them back to a dressing room and quickly changed.

When he was finished, he left his own clothes on the rack and took a quick glance at this reflection in the mirror. He smirked when realizing that he actually looked rather smart. The outfit fitted him nicely, despite the slightly embarrassing factor that the logo on the left breast proudly stated 'Grand Hibiscus Spa Staff. Gerald P. Rogers: Masseuse.'

Figuring that he may as well use it to his advantage, he walked out to the front desk and tapped the giraffe lady's shoulder. "Hello," he glanced at her name tag, "Sheryl. What customers do I have set up for today?" He kept his voice high and cheerful, rather like what he assumed a male masseuse's voice would sound like. Or maybe he was just being stereotypical.

"Gerald? Hmm…you have the Serenity Room, from 12:00-3:00," she replied.

"Excellent. And the names of my customers, so that I may greet them warmly? That's our motto, of course," he grinned. Oh, how he loved being a detective.

"Miss Carolyn Rodriguez, Mrs. Julie-Su, and finally is Miss Amy Rose. Do remember, Gerald, that these ladies are paying good money. They want a-"

"Thank you, Sheryl, I promise that they are in good hands," Allyn bowed, flashing her a charming smile. She blushed, and he walked away, rolling his eyes at himself. _That was a bit much, Allyn. Let's not get side-tracked._

He poked his head into the "Serenity Room", seeing that the real Gerald was already seated there. Ironically enough, he was a green ostrich. Gerald raised an eyebrow at Allyn, and asked, "Is something the matter?"

Allyn coughed, trying to stifle his laugh, and replied, "No, no, not at all. I'm sorry, I thought this was my room. Are you taking care of Miss Carolyn Rodriguez and Mrs. Julie-Su?"

"Yes, I am…" Gerald seemed rather suspicious. "I also have Miss-"

"Miss Amy Rose, yes, yes, I know. Thank you, Gerald!" Allyn swung the door closed, and made his way back to the employee room, thinking to himself, _Alright, time to do a little deductive reasoning here. If each massage lasts about an hour and Miss Rose's is last, then her appointment must be at 2:00. Which means I kick Gerald out at 1:45, in time to get myself prepared. _He chuckled to himself. _It's about time I got a piece of action. Vector's been getting all the action for years now._

_For now, I just have to wait._

* * *

Ryan groaned, slamming his head against the back of his jail cell. This was ridiculous.

"I was trying to _rescue _her, you idiots!" He cried at the police officers who were walking by. They ignored this statement, giving him disgusted glances and scoffs.

He clenched his fists around the bars of the cell, wishing that they would freeze. He would have been able to freeze and break them, if the officers hadn't injected that crap into his veins. It basically drained him of all energy to control his ice abilities, and it infuriated him. They had apparently learned from their mistakes when he had escaped last time.

He leaned back onto the floor, sighing exasperatedly. He wished Skye could bail him out, but he knew she had already tried. Quite defiantly, in fact. Last night she had just about gotten arrested herself for smart-mouthing a police officer and "disturbing the peace."

Ryan wondered what his sentence would be _now._ Not only was he here now because of "attempting to rape a woman" but also for "murder." It was absurdly unfair. He hadn't committed either crime. The police officers were just itching to find _someone _to blame for all the crap that happened in Sapphire City that no one was brave enough to do anything about.

"If you quit whining, I just might help you get out of here."

Ryan jerked up, realizing that his cellmate had woken up. Or, apparently, he had never even been asleep. He was a cheetah, with dull brown eyes and worn fur around his muzzle. He was looking at Ryan with a rather tired look. "Name's Dexter," he extended his hand, "and we're both here for something we didn't do. But sitting around and complaining isn't the way to fix it."

Ryan raised an eyebrow, looking at him suspiciously. "What…do you mean?"

"Come on," Dexter gestured for him to walk over. "I'll show you how we're gonna get out of here."

* * *

_A/N: Not an entirely eventful chapter, but it's basically a preparation for what's to happen next chapter. Should be insane. ;)_

_Tell me what you think! _

_~Star_

_**Sam and Nodoka belong to **__**ADarknessInHeaven**__**.**_

_**Allyn and Dexter belong to **__**Unknownlight.**_

_**Skye belongs to **__**Bureizu za Vampire.**_

_**Ryan belongs to **__**No Line on the Horizon.**_

_**Star belongs to meh. **_


	7. Silver and the Spa, Part 2

_Author's Note: Hello! I have finally gotten to updating this poor friend of mine. Now, before you begin reading, I'd love it if you could do me a favor. First of all, please leave a review. :D Second, please pay close attention to the details in this chapter (such as which "Room" each character is assigned to). It will make the chapter much less confusing. Thank you!_

* * *

It was precisely 1:30 in the afternoon. Amy and the others were wrapped up in over-priced robes and cotton slippers, each of them sitting on a chair in the Spa waiting room. The ever-so- infamous "Spa music" was playing from the tiny speakers in each corner of the lounge, and Amy was anxiously leafing through a magazine. To a stranger, it would be a rather odd sight. She had her legs crossed, and the one on top was bobbing up and down as if it Amy were having leg spasms. Her eyes kept darting back and forth across the room, though her hands remained frantically tearing through the magazine as if her life depended on it. In fact, Blaze was surprised Amy hadn't ripped the poor thing to pieces already.

"Amy, uh-"

"Don't talk to me."

Blaze instantly shut up. The tone in Amy's voice was well-known by all four of the other girls in the room. It was the "don't-you-dare-even-touch-me-with-a-twenty-two-foot-pole-or-i-will-personally-ensure-that-the-rest-of-your-life-is-hell" voice. The pink hedgehog could do wonders with her vocal cords.

Amy's eyes whisked back to the doorway, where, every once in a while, somebody would step in or out. The last two times the door had opened it had been a green ostrich and a violet panther. The lady at the reception desk had begun to smile every time the ostrich walked through, Amy had observed. But this was beside the point! Where was Silver?

"He's gonna be here at 2:00, Amy," Shade sighed, watching bluntly as Amy switched her position and now began tapping her fingers against the coffee table. "Not everybody arrives 30 minutes early to everything, like you do."

"Well, they should. It's only polite," Amy muttered under her breath. She sat straight up again as the front door opened. In walked a crimson hedgehog, who looked rather irked about something or other. She marched up to the receptionist desk, and practically collapsed against it. "I swear, Sheryl," the hedgehog said to the receptionist lady. "I can't hardly stand this place anymore. Seriously, I should be working someplace much more entertaining, with better pay and some damn health care benefits!" She slammed her fist against the counter.

The receptionist, apparently named Sheryl, laughed quietly, typing something into her computer. "Oh, come now, Skye, if you didn't work here you wouldn't get all that gossip you savor."

"I hate gossip!"The crimson hedgehog stuck out her tongue. "All I ever here about is this popular guy, or this new bar, or this new piece of juicy info about Sonic. I'm sick of it."

"Well, hey, at least you get your free spa day once a month. That's a pretty nice benefit, don't ya think?" Sheryl grinned.

"Yeah, yeah, just hook me up with some hot Mexican who knows how to rub my back real hard," Skye smirked, rolling her eyes. "Seriously, though, you have any free spots today? I'd love a Hot Stone. I've been a little…stressed. You know, about Ryan," she sighed.

"Oh, yes. I was sorry to hear about that," Sheryl clucked her tongue sadly. "I can't imagine Ryan would do anything so…well, never mind." She shook her head, looking back at her computer. "We have the Indulgence Room open at 2:30. I think Silver's going to be here to pick up the trash in there in just a bit, then it should be ready for you. If you just want to hang around—"

Amy missed the rest of the conversation, as she heard Star giggle, "Ooh, look, guys! They have crumpets!" The African Pygmy was standing next a kitchenette, on top of which was a plate of various pastries and herbal teas.

"Star, your maturity continues to amaze me." Blaze rolled her eyes.

"Sshh, shut _up_, guys!" Amy hissed, trying to listen to the conversation of the receptionist and the crimson hedgehog again. But the hedgehog was already grinning and walking away, and Amy had missed any extra information about Silver that might have been slipped. Still, there had been that bit about the Indulgence Room…

"Amy Rose? Starlight? Blaze, uh, Shade, and Rouge? Your rooms are ready." A white mongoose had just stepped into the Waiting Room, and was reading off of a clipboard. She appeared to be the one in charge of appointments. "Miss Starlight, you are in the Harmony Room with Jennifer as your masseuse." A leopard stepped forward, smiling and holding out her hand for Star to shake. The two stepped out together, the leopard leading the way. "Miss Rose, you have the Serenity Room—"

"I'll take the Indulgence Room please!" Amy sprang out of her chair like a Jack-in-the-box. "I really need to have the Indulgence Room."

"Erm, Miss Rose, I'm afraid the Indugence Room is not yet prepared, and we have another guest who wishes to use—"

"Can't she be in another room? You have like thirty billion rooms!" Amy exclaimed. "And the Indulgence Room, it…I-I just really, really need that room." The lady eyed Amy nervously as the hedgehog jumped up and down like some sort of jackhammer. "Like, you don't even understand how much I need that room."

"I…suppose you could be in it, but we're supposed to have a trash man come at 2:00-"

"I don't mind! I don't mind at all! In fact, the trash man can come in during the middle of my massage if he needs to! Please, Miss!" Amy was practically crying out now.

"Um…I…okay?"

"Excellent!" The pink hedgehog was instantly alright. In fact, she was now beaming. She gave a happy nod to the mongoose and disappeared around the corner, headed for the Indulgence Room. Apparently, she could find it by herself.

The mongoose blinked, watching the hedgehog disappear. After several long moments, she pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and swallowed. "I suppose that leaves Miss Shade with the Serenity Room, Miss Blaze with the Regality Room, and Miss Rouge with the Pampering Room. Ladies, your masseuses are Gerald, Jasmine, and Karen, respectively. Do enjoy your stay." At that, she promptly turned on her heel and walked swiftly away.

* * *

"I can't believe this. The Spa cannot possibly be booked. It has, like, a billion rooms!"

Sam and Nodoka were sitting on a small couch in the Foyer of the Grand Hibiscus. The Foyer was a very large area, with sloping granite countertops and great marble staircases. The couches were a very elegant moss green, made of fine velvet, and Sam was resting his head on his hand, which was in turn being propped up by his elbow, which was leaning against said velvet couch. Nodoka was merely crossing her arms and watching him through the corner of her eyes. Sam was complaining.

"It's absolutely insane. We pay some horrific sum of money to stay here and we can't even get into the Spa when we feel like it! Not to mention that it smelled like prunes in there. I'm sorry, Doka. I even told them I'd pay more, but they apparently have 'all their rooms full until next week.' I know you don't want to wait that long and I figured—"

"Oh, Sam, come on!" Nodoka interrupted, exasperated. "I'm fine, see?" She stood up and threw her hands out, in order to prove her point. "Stop whining. We'll find something more fun to do, anyway, okay?"

Sam straightened from his miserably pathetic position and looked at her. "So you're not angry?"

"No. I'm not angry."

Sam immediately stood up, smiling like he had just seen the sun for the first time. "Well, excellent then! So, how about we-?"

"But that does _not_ mean I'm going to the Sports Bar with you," Nodoka interrupted. Sam crumpled to the couch again. "Not only would I be abandoned for some electronic war field," the regimental hedgehog continued, "but it smells disgusting in there. Some horrible combination of sweat and cigarette smoke and—"

"Men?" Sam finished for her, trying to keep himself from grinning.

"Yes, exactly," Nodoka gave a curt nod. "M—wait a second. Isn't that Sonic?"

Sam turned to see what she was pointing at. And, sure enough, there was Sonic himself, wearing a pair of Ray Bans and tan shorts. He was marching up to the front desk as if he owned the place. Then again, he probably did.

"What do you think he's doing?" Nodoka whispered, watching him from behind a pot of ferns. "Why would he have a reason to come here?"

"Maybe he likes the Sports Bar," Sam snickered. He winced when she elbowed him between the ribs.

"Look, he's walking towards the elevator. Should we follow him?" the regimental female asked, her eyes sparking with mischief.

"Why?" Sam eyed her suspiciously.

"'Cause he's rich, and God knows what kind of wicked party he's throwing upstairs. Certainly that's what he's doing, right? That's what I would do if I was a multimillionaire's son," she grinned and tip-toed around the corner, hiding behind a marble column.

"Yeah, 'cause that party at the beach was pretty 'wicked'." Sam rolled his eyes, following her. "Doka, a girl nearly got raped—"

"Oh, that's because it was at a beach and nobody was paying any attention. Besides, they caught the guy who tried to rape her. Now, come _on_! We're going to figure out where Mr. Sonic Garnet is spending his money this afternoon." Nodoka grabbed Sam's hand, and proceeded to drag him towards the elevator, where the two hurriedly followed after Sonic.

* * *

Sonic was whistling cheerfully to himself, rather glad he had been able to escape seeing his father this morning. God knows the man would have killed his son. A party hosted by the Garnet family in which a woman is nearly raped? It had been on several newspapers and a few good radio stations too. Mr. Garnet would not be happy, not at all. But Sonic had previously decided he wasn't going to think about that until he absolutely had to. Besides, he was going to visit Blaze. And perhaps the victim of the near-rape would be there too. Then he could apologize for the whole situation, and his father's anger would be at least slightly dissolved.

"Problem solved," Sonic said, grinning as he reached the elevator. He was about to press the small button labeled with an "up" arrow, but he was stopped when he heard someone say,

"Sonic, where are you going?"

The cobalt hedgehog turned to see Knuckles headed towards him. The echidna was holding a small coffee cup from the bakery located right next to the Grand Hibiscus, and was wearing a pair of surf shorts and a t-shirt.

"Well, where are _you_ going?" Sonic raised an eyebrow.

Knuckles seemed slightly perplexed as to why Sonic was so suspicious, but he shrugged, saying, "Just wanted to take a stroll. The hotel's pretty nice."

"Why aren't you out on the beach? Tails said you two were going surfing in a bit," Sonic pointed out.

"Jesus, Sonic, can I not go get a coffee without your permission?" Knuckles said, now rather irritated. "Just 'cause you're part of the Garnet family doesn't automatically make you—"

"Sorry," Sonic sighed, not wanting to make his friend more boisterous than he already was. "You just…surprised me. I'll…uh, see ya later." He started to walk away, but stopped, biting his lip, when he heard Knuckles say,

"Now, wait a second. You never answered my question. Why are _you_ here?"

"Do I have to have your permission, Knuckles, to visit my sick cousin?" Sonic asked, dryly. He hoped his lie had come out convincingly, as he turned away.

"Sonic, you don't _have_ a cousin," the red echidna said blatantly, walking closer to Sonic until they were only a few feet apart.

"Says who?" The hedgehog turned to face Knuckles, yet again.

"Both of your parents are only children. As in, they don't have siblings. So you can't have any cousins," Knuckles told him. "I'm not _that_ gullible, Sonic," he snorted. "You're a good liar but not as good as Shadow."

"Ugh…" The hedgehog groaned, wiping a hand down his face. "You're not going to leave me alone until I tell you where I'm going, are you?"

"Nope." The echidna said honestly, grinning.

Sonic sighed, again. "I'm going to see if I can find Silver. You know that girl I was dancing with last night?"

"You mean the cat? The purple one?" Knuckles asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah, the purple one." The cobalt hedgehog rolled his eyes. Typical Knuckles to notice the color and not the amazing body. "Her name is Blaze."

"Oh, God…" Knuckles groaned. "You're not going on about _her _again…"

"She's apparently staying here," Sonic continued, raising his voice over Knuckles' complaining, "and I wondered if Silver knew what room she was in. I…wanted to talk to her."

"Since when are you such a romantic?" Knuckles asked, taking a sip of his coffee and collapsing into one of the many chairs in the Foyer. "You always seemed like the 'touch and go' type to me—"

"God, Knuckles! Maybe I really like this girl! Can you try being considerate, for once?" The hedgehog asked, whirling around. He was becoming increasingly aggravated with the echidna. Yeah, the red furball was his friend, but he could also be a real pain in the—

"Alright, alright!" Knuckles cut in. "So you gonna go find Silver or what?"

"Yeah, I am!" Sonic replied defiantly.

"Well, then I'm coming with you."

"Like Hell you're coming with me."

"Just try and stop me."

"I will. With one hand tied behind my back."

"Bring it on, lover boy."

The two friends stopped growling at each other when they heard someone nearby start chuckling. They both turned to find Silver, who was leaning against a trash bin and grinning at the duo. "Jeez, guys, loosen up. Why can't we all just get along?" the white hedgehog asked, raising his hands as if asking for a peace treaty, though he continued to grin at them.

"Silver! I was looking for you, man," Sonic said eagerly, loosening his rigid posture. "I wanted to ask you something."

"Yeah?" Silver raised an eyebrow, propping the trash bin up with one foot.

"You have any idea what room Blaze is staying in? I think she's staying with Amy Rose and—"

"You mean the purple feline?" Silver interrupted, smiling. "Yeah, I know where they're staying. Room 3500, I'm pretty sure. Doubt they're in there right now, though."

"Why?" Sonic asked.

"Well, Amy looks like the type who can't stay cooped up for long. Which is understandable. I'm the same way," Silver said matter-of-factly, though Sonic could hear the slight bit of pride in his tone.

"Okay, well, where do you think they would be?"

"I don't know. But, since you're here, would you mind helping me with my trash round? After that, it's the end of my shift. We can head down to the beach and surf," Silver told his two friends.

"Sure, why not?" Knuckles shrugged. "Don't have anything better to do. How 'bout it, Sonic?"

The cobalt hedgehog looked defeated. "Yeah, I guess."

"Awesome," Silver beamed. "Thanks, guys. Come on, I'm heading to the Spa next."

* * *

It was now Allyn's turn to whistle cheerfully to himself. So far, the day was going impeccably smooth for our armadillo friend. In fact, this was the easiest detective work he had done in quite a while. He could hardly remember a time when things had ran so nicely, when he hadn't been stressed, or bored, or otherwise in some sort of semi-lousy mood. He caught sight of Skye sitting in the Waiting Room and he snuck over to her, dropping onto the plush velvet chair beside her.

"Hello, Skye," he smiled.

She looked up at him dryly from where she had her nose stuck in a magazine. "I thought you were doing detective work," she whispered.

"I _am_," he replied. "Is this what I get for trying to be friendly?"

Skye set the magazine down. "Yeah, I guess so. I'm not used to you being friendly. Usually, you're either in a hurry or you're pissed off at something."

Allyn snorted. She was probably right. "Mm-hmm, whatever. You know what time it is?"

She gave him yet another dry look. "I thought you detectives always carried the latest technology, let alone a _watch_," she told him pointedly.

"I left mine in my room, okay?" Allyn answered, exasperated. "Are you going to tell me what time it is, or not?"

"Can I go with 'not'?" Skye grinned.

"I don't have time for this." The armadillo was about to stand up and walk away when the crimson hedgehog abruptly grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.

"Alright, alright, I'll tell you what time it is," Skye laughed, winking at Allyn. He just sighed, looking away. The hedgehog glanced down at her watch and replied, "1:50. It's 1:50."

"Shit!" The armadillo shot to his feet. "I gotta get to the room, Gerald will already be there!"

Skye looked startled. "Jeez, Allyn, why is it such a—"

"Damn it, damn, later Skye," he muttered under his breath as he left the Waiting Room, and swiftly made his way towards the Serenity Room, where Amy Rose was surely waiting. "It's alright; I've got this under control," he said to himself. "Once I get to the room, I'll quietly kick Gerald out and then talk to Miss Rose. Piece of cake."

He speed-walked down the hallway, screeching to a halt when he saw Gerald walking his way. Of course Allyn couldn't be seen! Allyn was wearing Gerald's uniform; it would look far too suspicious.

"Evasive maneuver," the armadillo whispered. As a detective, talking to himself had become one of his favorite pastimes. Or maybe he had just been forced through too many of those superhero cartoons.

He jumped behind a wall, quickly opening a cabinet door so that it concealed his upper body as Gerald walked by. Carefully, he peeked out and saw that Gerald was going to the stock room to grab some more supplies. Making sure he moved lightly and silently, Allyn followed behind Gerald until he was about a foot away from him. Then he altogether tackled the poor ostrich, taking him into a headlock and gagging him with a strip of tablecloth, which he pulled from his pocket.

"Sorry, buddy," Allyn whispered, as Gerald squirmed and cursed. "But I have to do this." He then slammed his arm against the back of the ostrich's head and Gerald was out like a light.

Allyn looked both ways, making sure no one was walking by. He then dragged the green ostrich into a nearby storage closet, taking extra care to lock the door and bind the ostrich's feet and wings. Was this altogether necessary? No, probably not. But it sure was fun.

After he had finished with these extra "precautions", Allyn finally made his way to the Serenity Room, cursing under his breath about the fact that he was already running around fifteen minutes late. Miss Rose was going to be impatient, and God knew if Allyn was even going to get any information out of her. But detective work was detective work, and it was something he had to do. Sort of.

Finally, Allyn found the Serenity Room, and slipped inside. He nearly gagged upon entering, as the whole room was filled with the dreaded "Aromatherapy." The horrible odors that only spa people seemed to be capable of creating. It was some awful mixture of coconut and avocado and lavender and pineapple, if the reader can even imagine what that might smell like. Perhaps it was just Allyn that didn't enjoy it, though, because the girl lying on the massage table, wrapped up like a burrito in silky white sheets, seemed to be at absolute peace. He carefully walked by her, heading over to the small cabinet station, where various containers of lotion and hot stones were organized. The armadillo set down his small knapsack and pulled out his notebook, a pen, ink (yes, he was that professional), and something to calm Miss Rose down, in case it came to that. Then he sat down in one of the chairs across from the massage table, crossed his legs, and asked, "Miss Rose?"

"Mmugh," the girl lying on the table mumbled and turned her head so that she was facing him.

Allyn shot out of the chair like a rocket, staring incredulously at the girl, while she did exactly the same. Then they simultaneously shouted each other's names.

"_Shade?"_

"_Allyn?"_

* * *

Amy waited in the Indulgence Room, her arms wrapped around her legs. Her massage therapist had left the room to get some more hot oil. A small, leaf-shaped clock on the wall seemed to mock Amy, as the second hand ticked further and further past 2:00. It was currently 2:05. The pink hedgehog pressed her forehead against her knees, taking deep breaths. She _needed_ to talk to Silver. He had saved her last night; he had kept her safe. She needed that safety again.

She heard a door opening and the sound of hushed voices bickering about something. Slowly, she got off of the massage table and moved towards the door, pressing her ear against it. One of the voices was that of her massage therapist, while the other was male. She blinked. She recognized that voice!

She pulled the door open swiftly, and rushed outside, not really paying attention to the fact that she was wearing nothing but a robe. A loosely tied one, at that.

Silver was standing just around the corner, leaning against a trash bin and looking tired. He yawned and said something back to Amy's massage therapist, who then shot him a death-like glare. But Amy wasn't paying attention to this. The hedgehog immediately rushed down the hall, until she was merely feet behind Silver. Then she quietly, apprehensively asked, "Silver?"

He turned around, looking interested, and somewhat pleased that so many people had been looking for him today. Then he caught sight of the pink hedgehog, at what a sight she was. Dark circles etched the area beneath her eyes and she looked terrified, as if by some invisible ghost. She seemed exhausted, and Silver knew she hadn't slept at all last night. He gently walked closer to her, saying, "Amy? Um…is everything okay?"

She stared right back at him. "I need to talk to you. Now."


End file.
